﻿138 MADREPORARIA. 



me to be quite irreconcilable with a specimen of which the most striking features were the 

 erect, flattened, lanceolate tongues, " four or five round each calicle." 



Again, the original description of the tubercles appears to agree best with those of 

 M. hispida. Montipores closely resembling hispida are known from the Eed Sea, e.g. 

 J/, tuhcrosa, Klunzinger. Further, among the Montipores of the Paris Museum there are a 

 number of specimens from the Eed Sea closely resembling M. hispida, some indeed with flat 

 lanceolate tongues much more pronounced than in M. hispida. These beautiful corals show 

 remarkable variations and may perhaps not all be specifically related. They have been labelled 

 M. monastenata, Forskal. Some of them shade into another group which has been identified 

 with M. tuberosa of Dr. Klunzinger. 



It is among these that I think we might find the nearest approach to Forskal's type. 



115. Montipora friabilis. (PI. XXIV. fig. 2 ; PI. XXXIV. fig. 5.) 



Description. — The corallum is formed of a cluster of small ladle-shaped foHa with smooth 

 regular outer surfaces, each from 4 to 5 cm. in diameter, about 2 cm. deep, and with growing 

 edges from 4 to 5 mm. in thickness. These folia are clustered quite irregularly, one growing 

 out of the side of, or on the top of the other, in which latter case hollow chambers arise in 

 which the coral polyps seemed able to live. In the centre of the coraUum the folia may be 

 distorted, the edges being irregularly bent ; but the tendency to put out ear- or ladle-shaped 

 outgrowths persists. The upper edges of the symmetrical ladles tend to curve over inwards to 

 form a thick irregular rim. From the rounded upper outer surface of this rim a fresh foliate 

 outgrowth may start. The smooth rounded outer surfaces of the ladles are entirely free from 

 epitheca. 



The calicles range from • 75 mm. and less ; they are very irregularly distributed. Aperture 

 petaloid, very seldom sharply outlined all round. Septa in one cycle (often part of a second) 

 reach nearly to the half radius circle as very thin, hairy, glassy filaments. Double calicles 

 occur with a columella-like dividing process. On the outer surfaces of the folia the calicles 

 are crowded ; they are slightly protuberant, and in the basal portions where the tissue is 

 denser, are surrounded by thick solid rings wliich are seldom quite complete and from which 

 thick septa project. 



Ccenenchyma consists of a lamellate reticulum extremely light and friable at the edges 

 and on the upper surface. The streaming layer is very marked and forms the whole thickness 

 of the growing edges. In forming the lower surface it tends to be arranged in definite parallel 

 lameUas running out radially perpendicular to the surface and at even distances apart. This 

 gives the surface in patches a finely striated appearance. The upper surface is everywhere 

 covered with erect, tall, thin, flat flakes, very delicate and friable, and often perforated to 

 such an extent as to leave little more than a few threads or glassy hairs. These make the 

 surface of the bleached skeleton look like cotton-wool. In thicker and older portions of the 

 corallum, on ridges, &c., these may become denser and more typically tuberculate ; or again. 



