﻿144 . MADKEPORAEIA. 



121. Montipora patula. 

 Montipm-a pahla, Verrill {non Quelch), Proc. Essex Inst., vi. (1868) p, 87 (v. 3L peltifarmis, p. 128). 



Descnption. — Corallum thin (4 mm. at 2 • 5 cm., 8 mm. at 7 • 5 cm. from edge), attached 

 and encrusting at centre, edges free and explanate, projecting some 10 cm. 



The calicles are minute • 75 mm. in diameter, crowded, with six septa reaching to about 

 the half radius circle. In the larger and older calicles ia the central part of the stock two 

 cycles appear, the secondaries being very narrow. 



Ccenenchyma " very porous," tliickly covered with small, unequal, prominent, round-topped 

 tubercles, which have an open spongiform texture, their surfaces covered with rough projections. 

 Sometimes these are less developed, and are then like clusters of spongy trabeculfe which 

 project all over the surface and are lacerately divided. Four or five of the larger tubercles 

 usually surround each calicle. The largest tubercles are scarcely • 5 mm. in diameter and 

 1 • mm. in height. Eound the edges they tend to form radiating ridges. 



This description evidently refers to a tuberculate Montiporan, the radiating ridges round 

 the edge appearing to suggest affinity with the next type. The original was from the 

 Hawaiian Islands and is preserved in the Yale College Museum. 



122. Montipora effusa. (PI. XXV. fig. 2 ; PI. XXVII. fig. 1.) 



Manopora effusa, Dana, Zoophytes (1848) p. 500, pi. xlvi. fig. 4. 



Montipora effusa, MUne-Edwards and Haime, Ann. d. Sci. Naturelles, (3°) xvi. (1851) p. 64. 



Non Montipora effvsa, Quelch, Chall. Eep., Reef Corals (1886) p. 178 (v. M. Cludlengeri, p. 121). 



Description. — Corallum with thin, free, explanate initial growth, sending up tortuous 

 cylindrical processes which branch and fuse into shapeless masses, the processes and branches 

 encrusting one or more worm tubes, and hence curved in different directions. The explanate 

 portion may die away and the confused tangle of branches continue, or on the other hand the 

 whole growth may remain explanate, hardly any worm-tubes being present. The branches 

 when free are fairly uniform in thickness on one and the same stock, but vary from 3 mm. to 

 2 cm. The explanate portions of the specimens with thicker branches are thicker than 

 those with thin branches. 



Calicles star-shaped, immersed, minute, • 6 mm. (stUl smaUer on specimens with thin 

 branches), with six well-developed septa separated by clear, round or petaloid interseptal 

 loculi, except when the rudiments of a second cycle appear. Evenly distributed about 2 mm. 

 apart, always minute where the layer covering the worm-tube is thin. On the under 

 surface of the explanate portions, when not covered with epitheca, calicles may appear either 



