﻿100 MADREPORARIA. 



are 2 to 3 mm. across, the wliole space swelling about 1 mm. high. In section the tissue can 

 be seen expanding fan-like under these interstitial eminences. 



There is no specimen in the collection corresponding with this type. Milne-Edwards and 

 Haime considered it identical with Lamarck's M. verrucosa, but it is obviously very distinct 

 from the specimens wliich are here thought to represent the latter species, unless, being a 

 fragment merely, it did not show the typical development. 



Fiji Islands. 



78. Montipora masandrina. (PI. XIX. fig. 1.) 



Porites mmandrina, Ehrenberg, Corallenthiere (1834) p. 118. 



Montipm-a monasteriata, Milne-Edwards and Haime {non Forskal), Ann. d. Sci. Nat., xvi. (1851) p. .57. 

 Montipora rus, Milne-Edwards and Haime (non Forskal), op. cit., p. 58. 



Montipora nis, Klunzinger (no7i Forskdl), Corallenthiere, ii. (1879) p. 36, pi. v. fig. 5, pi. vi. fig. 9, 

 pi. X. fig. 8. 



Description. — Corallum encrusting, rising into irregularly lobed, almost branching masses, 

 fused together. Eound the bases of the taller lobate portions the living coral occurs only in 

 patches encrusting the- dead previous growths. The creeping edge from 4 to 5 mm. thick, and, 

 wherever freely projecting, supported by an epitheca. 



Calicles conspicuous everywhere, even on the growing edge, deeply sunk between the 

 strongly convex interstices ; somewhat less than 1 mm. in diameter. Septa very irregular. 

 The six primaries may be well developed, giving the aperture a distinct stellate appearance, 

 the secondaries often not recognisable in the jagged and irregular margins of the interseptal 

 loculi. At times the whole border of the calicle is so jagged and irregular that no clear septal 

 arrangement is apparent. 



Ccenenchyma is composed in section of a very solid reticulum, its thick threads not 

 arranged as trabeculse, they end at the surface as coarse granules or echinulce, and account 

 for the irregularity of the calicular margins. The interstitial ccenenchyma swells up into 

 smooth rounded papillEe of aU sizes, averaging from 2 to 3 mm. high, and fi-om 2 to 5 mm. 

 broad. These fill up the interstices in such a way as to leave a connected system of level 

 valleys just wide enough to take the calicles. Eound the growing edge where the ccenen- 

 chyma of the interstices swells up as if it would submerge the calicles, the interstitial 

 papillee occasionally fuse together to form ridges, and even thick, irregular knobs, lobes or 

 branches. The tops of the lobes and branches are, however, often smooth and deeply punctured 

 Avith calicles. PapHlce also occur in the deep narrow valleys between the lobes. 



The two specimens in the collection obtained by the Museum at an interval of nearly 

 thirty years can, curiously enough, be fitted together and then form part of what was evidently 

 an old stock (PI. XIX. fig. 1). The dead and corroded lower portions show traces of three earlier 



