﻿PAPILLATE MONTIPOR^. G9 



Group IV.— PAPILLATE. 



a. Papillcti irregular. 



51. Montipora venosa. (PL XXXII. fig. 15.) 



Pmites venosa, Ehrenberg, Korallenthiere (1834) p. 118. 



Manopm-a venosa, Dana, Zoophytes (1848) p. 501. 



Montipora explanata (partim), Briiggemann, Phil. Trans., clxviii. (1879) p. 577. 



Montipom kiberculosa, Klunzinger (non Lamarck), Corallenthiere, pt. ii. (1879) p. 32, taf. vi. 4, v. 13, 



X. 4. 

 Montipora verrucosa. Id. op. cit., p. 35, taf. vi. 10, v. 14 and 15, x. 7. 

 Montipora scabricula, Quelch (non Dana), Chal. Eep., Reef Corals (1886) p. 177. 



Description. — Corallum thick (1 to 2 cm.), encrusting, tough and heavy, one thick layer 

 over the other forming great massive nodules. Free edges v?ith or without epitheca. 



Calicles small, • 5 to • 75 mm. The primaries short and stout, with directives sometimes 

 pronounced, when they may be laminate ; secondaries faintly developed; two or more primaries 

 fuse far down in the fossa with a solid columella-like body. Fossa deep and open. 



Ccenenchyma a compact reticulum forming a solid layer upon the epitheca; the thickening 

 layer is conspicuous as an upward streaming of a compact reticulum without any distinct 

 trabecule. At the surface, the reticulum foams quite irregularly upwards, as single papillte, 

 as rings round calicles, or as small patches with smooth valleys or depressions between them. 

 When these are very deep, the calicles in tHeir bases may be crowded and minute. The ends 

 of the reticular threads rising up, to. form the papillate swellings sometimes end as free 

 bushes of short fine branchlets. This delicate branching is not always apparent, the threads 

 being more compactly arranged into reticular papillae; 



There are five specimens; which are grouped' under this heading. They all differ, but yet 

 lead on to one another. They lead on also to the early type " spicmosa " of Lamarck, which 

 is also characterised by the irregular foaming of the interstitial ccenenchyma. 



Three of these specimens are from Dr. Klunzinger's collection, and were labelled by him 

 M. verrucosa, Lam., M. tubcrcidosa, Lam., and M. tuberculosa var. ccerulea. The first named of 

 these was further identified by him with Ehrenberg's type Porites venosa, preserved in the 

 Berlin Museum. Hence this name must be applied to the group, siace neither of the earlier 

 Lamarckian names seems to apply. In the original measurements given by Dr. Klunzinger, 

 the size (2 mm.) of the calicle really applies to the apertures of the papillate ramparts in the 

 bases of which the calicles are sunk. 



The first specimen, identified by Dr. Klunzinger as Porites venosa, Ehr., is 1 • 5 cm. thick, 

 and the papillate formation is more pronounced than in any of the following. The lobuli 

 formed by the papillate upsurging of groups of interstitial spaces together are separated by 

 deep narrow valleys, the level bottoms of which are thickly dotted over with minute calicles. 



