﻿160 MADEEPORARIA. 



Some of the fronds are smooth, and others so wrinkled as to be thick and very roughened 

 by the multitude of prominent upgrowths of the ccenenchyma, which here and there form 

 finger-like processes an inch long. The young and very thin fronds, starting from the upper 

 faces of older fronds or curling round from their uppermost lateral edges, probably form 

 together the starting of a new cluster which would in time cover over the old as a still larger 

 and more imposing stock. 



/. Mauritius. [Register No. 83. 7. 27. 8.] 



g, lb, i, j. (Detached fragments of the same.) 



(3) Two specimens which can be fitted together to form a tall, sharply conical mass of 

 fronds. The lower, pointed, basal portion is corroded and covered with algaj. The upper 

 portion is composed of curling and irregularly intert^^ining fronds, not crowded together, and 

 with the thin edges curved slightly upwards so that the under side is slightly bulged outwards. 

 The large fronds seem to have grown by successive ladle-shaped bulgings, hardly sufficiently 

 marked, however, to obscure their conical shapes (cf M. friahilis, p. 138 and PI. XXIV.). The 

 coenenchymatous ridges are only visible near the growing edge, after which they are soon 

 obscured. The tubercles, which thickly cover the corallum, tend rather to form walls of thin 

 plates arranged at all angles, but seldom in line with the ridges. These flat plates slope 

 towards the growing edge and thus hide the calicles which are hardly visible when the 

 corallum is held up to the light. The corallum is little more than 1 mm. thick at the edge, 

 and reaches 3 mm. The ccenenchyma is very dense in the upward streaming and lower layers. 

 On the imder side, the numerous minute calicles are immersed near the edge, but lower down 

 may open on small protuberances, or else be surrounded by rather solid rings of short stout 

 tubercles. 



This specimen might perhaps have been described under a separate heading as a variety. 



k, I. Eamesvaram, Gulf of Manaar. E. Thurston, Esq. 88. 11. 25. 2. 



(4) A very beautiful specimen (labelled M. lima), unfortunately greatly broken. The 

 fronds together form a rather expanded cone ; the individual fronds do not curl so much into 

 steep cones, but starting as thin strips often only 2 to 3 cm. across, they expand into tall, 

 slightly curled fronds ; the whole cluster is grouped roughly into concentric circles. The 

 coenenchymatous ridges are very marked for 5 to 6 cm. from the edge, of various thickness 

 and height, the thicker rising irregularly into jagged points, which slope upwards. Lower down 

 on the corallum, most of these vanish and only a few rise, often two together, into thick sharp 

 ridges covered with tall, saw-like, angular points which may be an inch high ; between these 

 ridges the interstices are smooth, and the calicles open in great numbers on the surface 

 (PL XXXIV. fig. 13). Individual fronds occur in which the ridges are less conspicuous and 

 the tubercular formation correspondingly better developed. The under surfaces of the fronds are 

 finely striated by the laminate streaming layers, and in the case of the outermost fronds, short 

 tubercles may cover the surface and surround the calicles with prominent walls. The identifi- 

 cation of this with M. lima, Lamarck, by Quelch was, I think, quite correct. But Lamarck's 

 M. lima was founded upon small thin fronds, slightly coiled, more or less fragmentary and 

 characterised chiefly by the thin longitudinal ridging. The species lima must, I think, be 

 merged with, foliosa. 



m. Zamboanga. H.M.S. ' Challenger.* 



n, 0. (Fragments of same.) 



