﻿GHABEOUS MONTIPORJE. 47 



words " type species " inscribed' on the label. It is only a fragment, ueing the tip of a stem 

 ending in three short branchlets; the whole being only 3 cm. long. The exsert laminate 

 septa are peculiar and would alone serve as a specific distinction. A very similar character is 

 found in some examples of M. gaimardi, but the calicles there are much smaller and the 

 peripheral (costal) edges of the septa are not so free and laminate, but are frequently 

 thickened with a kind of T-piece, which indicates the advancing wall of the fossa, using the 

 term " wall " in a limited sense for the innermost ring of tangential interseptal plates. 



a. New Zealand. Coll. Stokes. [97. 6. 18. 13.] (Type.)^ 



30. Montipora nana. 



Description. — Corallum' stunted ramose, with thick, short, round stem, giving off short, 

 round thick branches, the latter hardly tapering, with blunt, rounded ends. Stem about 

 1 cm., and branches 6 to 7 mm. thick. 



Calicles somewhat conspicuous, 0'75 mmi in diameter and from 0"5 to 0*75 mm. apart.. 

 Apertures neatly marked out by clear, continuous or slightly interrupted membranous rings, 

 not rising above the surface, but often separated from' one another by a deep, irregular furrow ; 

 the rim is thin, only very slightly petaloid, often quite circular. The- primaries irregularly 

 developed, inconspicuous as thin rods, only complete in. the depth of the fossa. Directives may 

 be laminate but only deep in the fossa ; minute point-lilve secondaries also appear irregularly. 



A loose, open, and very friable laminate reticulum forms the rounded tips of the branches. 

 The transition from the axial to the radial cortical layer appears to be somewhat sudden. The 

 radial threads in the thickening stem and proximal portions of the branches run out into 

 sharp echinulse which give a soft woolly appearance to the surface. 



There are two specimens of this coral, which appears to be distinct from all the smooth 

 ramose types yet described. The larger specimen rises about 6 cm. high from the tip of a 

 decayed corallum of the same-species. The smaller specimen, which was probably collected at 

 the same time, is only 3 cm. high, and has also been broken from a dead previous growth. 



In its calicles with continuous rims it approaches AL rubra, M. compressa, and M. alci- 

 cornis, but the character of the rim is very distinct from that of any of these types. 



a. Port MoUe, Queensland (5 fathoms, H.M.S. 'Alert.' 82.2.23.158. (Type.) 



' coral bottom). 

 6. Northeast Coast, Australia. H.M.S. 'Alert.' 82. 2. 23. 139. 



31. Montipora digitata. 



Montipora digitath, Dana,, Zoophytes (1848) p. 508, pi. xlviii. figs. 1, la, lb, Ic. 

 Montipora digitaia, Mihie-Edwards and Haime, Ann. d. Sci. Nat., (3°) xvi..(1851) p. 66. 



Description. — Corallum small, branched, often digitate, branches subterete, slightly com- 

 pressed, often tortuous, 6 mm. thick, subequal, obtuse. 

 Calicles crowded, immersed, • 3 mm. in diameter. 

 Goenenchyma' perfectly smooth. 



