﻿80 MADREPORAKIA. 



60. Montipora fungiformis. (PI. XII. fig. 2 ; PI. XXXIII. fig. 3.) 



Description. — Corallum encrusting, with drooping, outwardly sloping edges which are free, 

 without epitheca, very friable and thick, 6 to 8 mm. The heaped up centre is quite 

 irregularly swollen into knobs of all sizes and shapes, often induced by large worm tubes. 

 Fresh free edges often grow out of the knobs and elevations and closely cover, without 

 immediately fusing with, the main stock. 



Calicles very minute and densely crowded in the narrow valleys and depressions between 

 the elevations. On the more favourable positions, the calicles reach nearly 1 ram., generally 

 star-shaped, and from 1 to • 5 mm. apart. The primaries are irregularly developed, with con- 

 spicuous directives, often laminate ; secondaries only partially or not at all developed. Fossa 

 deep and conspicuous. On the under surface, the calicles are small, crowded, and star-Uke. 



Ccenenchyma consists of a thick laminate streaming layer which forms the often swollen, 

 rounded and very friable edges ; the elements bend upwards to form a reticulum which swells 

 up into nipple-shaped papUlfe. These are either separate and distinct, occupying the whole 

 interstitial space, or they rise as side walls in relation to individual calicles, or they fuse 

 together in small groups, frequently surrounding calicles with a rampart, or all may fuse over 

 a small area, which is then foveolate, the calicles being at the bottom of deep pits. 



The surface texture varies, being sometimes (i.e. in some specimens) very echinulate, so that 

 the papiUoj and surface look soft and hairy ; in others this character is hardly recognisable. 



There are four specimens. The type specimen (a) is a large oval mass, 30 cm. across, with 

 drooping edges. A dead mass of coral underneath seems to have formed the original attach- 

 ment and the stock is the result of several encrusting growths drooping over one another, 

 each new growth reaching further than the last. This specimen is marked by a singular 

 development of echinula?. The smallest specimen (b) has been detached from a, on which it 

 formed a short ridge due to' worm tubes. From the ends of the ridge two droojdng lobes of 

 fresh growth hang down, smothering so much of the main stock but not fusing with it. 



The specimens c, d, show the same general characters, but are not so markedly echinulate. 



fl. Locality not recorded. [Register N"o. 97. 5. 18. 8.] (Type.) 



h. (Fragment of a) ditto [ „ 97. 5. 18. 2.] 



c,d. „ „ [ , „ 97.5.18.3/6.] 



For another species, M. saxea, belonging to this group, see Appendix. 



h. Papillce in close relation to calicles as hoods, tinderlips, &c. 



61. Montipora bilaminata. (PL XVI. fig. 2 ; PL XXXIII. fig. 4.) 



Description. — Corallum expanding freely as a thin, translucent, slightly wavy, concave 

 plate of even tluckness, 2 mm. (1 mm. at edges), covered underneath by a hard, smooth, and 

 shining epitheca. 



