﻿FOVEOLATE MONTIPOE^. 61 



Primaries thin, reaching to tlie half radius circle, conspicuous ; one, sometimes two, directives 

 visible to the naked eye ; secondaries irregularly developed ; fossa deep. 



The ccenenchyma shows in section a thin axial reticulum which is open and angular. 

 This is surrounded by a dense radiating reticulum, which rises up in the interstitial spaces as 

 a regular system of ridges, sometimes sharpened into thin thread-like keels. The surface is 

 a delicate, open, slightly flaky reticulum, the tips of the threads pointing in all directions as 

 fine «chinulie, the septa being conspicuous radial groups of reticular points. 



The single large type specimen differs chiefly in the manner of growth from the next 

 type M. ■multiformis. The interstitial ridges are also not so tliick and woolly. The calicles 

 appear more crowded, and the branching processes are more regularly cylindrical with 

 tapering points. These differences are sufficient justification for classing them separately. 

 Quelch compared the specimen with Briiggemann's M. divaricata and Dana's 31. digitata, but 

 these are almost purely glabrous forms, and differ very widely in almost all important points. 



a. Zamboanga. H.M.S. ' Challenger.' (Type.) 



44. Montipora multiformis. (PL VII. ; PI. VI. fig. 4; PI. XXXII. fig. 7.) 



Description. — Corallum encrusting, with free edges, expanding or rising into knobs or 

 erect processes which fuse irregularly ; epitheca under creeping and sometimes also under free 

 edges. Successive incrustations of former growths with regularly knobbed surfaces give rise 

 to great shapeless mounds full of hollows. 



Calicles crowded, sunk, rather less than their diameter apart ; star-like, varying greatly 

 in size, from 1 mm. on eminences to ■ 5 on slopes and in the valleys. The apertures of the 

 larger calicles bounded by a continuous border from which the six primaries project well into 

 the fossa ; the secondaries are only points. Directive septa visible to the naked eye ; one of 

 these in the larger calicles may be very thick, exsert, and not infrequently laminate. Where 

 the calicles are very crowded their margins may be incomplete, and the stars irregular, some 

 being like minute pin-holes. On the under surface, the calicles are small and circumscribed 

 by a continuous ring marked off from the looser interstitial ccenenchyma ; this distinctness 

 is, however, gradually lost as the under surface becomes denser and more solid. 



Ccenenchyma. In section the typical streaming layer shows traces of lamination. Its 

 elements bend upwards and downwards towards the upper and lower surfaces of the coral. 

 As the upper layer thickens, i.e. in the older portions of the stock, the vertical elements of 

 the reticulum look like trabecuJee. At the surface, this reticulum ends in bold, jagged flakes, 

 stout and sharply cut yet not crowded, so that the reticulum is not dense. The reticulum 

 everywhere (except in the level bottoms of the valleys which are crowded with irregular 

 calicles) swells up between the calicles. The ridge thus formed may be round and low^ 

 or else have a slight median keel. The whole surface has a woolly appearance owing to 

 the open character of the reticulum of these raised ridges. The knobs and processes are 



