﻿154 . MADREPOEAEIA. 



dying down of the older portion the subsequent growth has been quite irregular, perhaps 

 rendered more so by the presence of Ophiurids, Molluscs and Crabs. The nearly upright fronds 

 are wrinkled, ragged, and as if torn into irregular fringes, and from both surfaces there spring 

 short irregular branches. Yet in these irregular fronds the disposition to curl spirally is 

 traceable. I would suggest that tliis is part of an old stock which has lost the primitive 

 symmetry of the fronds more completely than have any of the other specimens. 



g. Mauritius. Coll. de Robillard. 83. 7. 27. 9. 



(6) Five detached and broken fronds from Rodriguez, which were named by Briiggemann 

 M. foliosa. They show all the characters of the above, but, being small, they are thinner and 

 the specific marks are not so pronounced. 



h. Rodriguez. Royal Society. 76. 5. 5. 76. 



129. Montipora striata. (PI. XXVIII. fig. 3 ; PI. XXXIV. fig. 12.) 



Description. — Corallum a thick, flat, dish-like expanse, the concavity being nearly filled 

 up by thin vertical processes 5 to 6 cm. high and irregularly fused together. The sides of 

 these processes are roughened by tufted groups of tubercles, while, from the tips, smooth, 

 longitudiually striated spilves or points shoot up 4 to 5 mm. above the calicles and tubercles. 

 The corallum is attached by its centre and there is no epitheca. 



Calicles distinct, and except on level explanate portions, star-like, about 1 mm. or less in 

 diameter. Parts of two cycles of septa, irregular, thin and rod-Hke, slightly swollen at their 

 tips ; the fossa is clear and deep. On, the under surface the calicles are numerous ; close 

 aroTtud the edge they open on the surface of the corallum and have irregular septa ; nearer 

 the centre they are slightly protuberant, with six weU-marked, thick, regular and slightly 

 exsert septa. 



The coenenchyma is remarkable for a thick laminate streaming layer. At the growing 

 edges and at the tips of the vertical processes this layer shoots out beyond the rest of the 

 corallum. Round the edges it mounts up into thick, coarse, very friable ridges and spikes, aU 

 longitudiaally striated. At the tips of the branches the spikes are graceful and often sharply 

 pointed. In all cases these protrusions of the streaming reticulum are longitudinally striated 

 with projecting laminte which are white against a red-pink core. Prom the thick streaming 

 layer the trabecular layer arises somewhat suddenly. The smooth, thick and irregularly 

 crowded trabeculae are very short, but above the surface they rise up iuto tall, feathery but 

 compact tubercles, usually in dense clusters which are typically associated with calicles. 

 The further growth and branching of these clusters give rise to the vertical processes, on the 

 sides and especially round the bases of which single calicles, carried up by compact groups of 

 tubercles, may stand out 2 to 3 mm. The caLicular aperture is right at the top of such out- 



