﻿PAPILLATE MONTIPOR^. 97 



74. Montipora patinaeformis. 



Madrepora patinceformis, Espei', Forts., i. (1797) p. 94, pis. 75 and 76. 



Non Montipora palmceformis, Studer, MB. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1878) p. 538. 



Description. — Corallum expanding, large, apparently whole or half disc-shaped, highest 

 in the centre, and with slightly drooping edges like a shallow inverted bowl ; the edges are 

 , very slightly lobate, and the surface of the coral shows what appear to be the outlines of 

 former lobed edges of previous growth periods. Towards the centre the stock is about 

 12 mm. thick, at the edge 3 mm. On the under side the epitheca extends to within 5 to 

 6 cm. from the edge, which appears radially wrinkled. 



The calicles on the upper side crowded and arranged in curved rows between the ridges, 

 six-rayed ; on the under side sparse, very minute, either level with the surface or raised on 

 slight wart-like eminences which are covered over by the epitheca. 



The coenenchyma appears in section to be purely reticular. The reticulum rises into 

 highly echinulate ridges which twist about irregularly between the calicles. On the under 

 side the coenenchyma is solid and granular. 



This description has been put together with some difficulty from Esper's text and figures. 

 He called the specimen the cup-shaped star coral, but assumed, in his description, that the 

 " latus interius " was the upper side, the epitheca being a crust of Millepora. To add to the 

 confusion, in his explanation of the figures (p. 94), he names the sides correctly, the upper 

 side being the latus exterius (of the cup), and the under side being the latus interius. 



There is no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the figures. In these the most 

 striking feature is the running together of the interstitial eminences into labyrinthine 

 curves. This, then, must be taken as the special feature of this coral ; cf. M. unclata, and more 

 especially M. viridis. Further, the highly echinulate ridges call to mind the singularly 

 hairy papillte of some specimens of M. fungiformis (PI. XII. fig. 2), the method of growth of 

 which might easily give rise to the stock described by Esper. On the other hand, there are 

 only doubtful traces on M. fungiformis of labyrinthine series of papillee. 



There is, therefore, no specimen in the National Collection showing the characters of 

 Esper's type, nor indeed any Montiporan at all from Tranquebar, where the specimen described 

 by Esper was found. 



The colour is described as being, towards the surface, a reddish-grey, somewhat lighter in 

 the interior of the corallum. 



Milne-Edwards and flaime merely mention this type, and follow Dana in suggesting 

 that it belongs to the foliose group of Montipores. Studer, in 1878, probably following this 

 suggestion, described a large stock formed of conically rolled fronds (from Salvatti, Galevo 

 Straits) as agreeing with Esper's description, and in 1888 Ortmann* thought Esper's type 

 might be the same as Briiggemann's "prolifcra." These identifications seem to me quite 

 inconsistent with Esper's detailed description. The form of the corallum, with its drooping 

 fungiform margin, removes it far from the foliose group, all of which consist of more or less 

 erect spirally curled leaves, and without any trace of labyrinthine ridges. 



* Zool. Jahrb., iii. (Syst.) p. 156. 



