﻿ANACROPORA. 173 



In addition to the above there are two more small specimens also from Evans Bank, but 

 from a greater depth, viz. 15 fathoms. Radial laminffi are very pronounced in the protuber- 

 ant calicles. On the lower and more protuberant sides of the calicles, the directive septum, 

 with one or two primaries near it, may rise up as exsert laminae above the rest of the 

 margin, and even project as jagged costae down the outer side of the calyx. In these cases 

 there are traces of the spiral twisting of the calicles wliich was noted here and there in the 

 genus Turhinaria (cf. Vol. II. p. 13). Further, in harmony with these pronounced jagged 

 costse on the calicles, the whole surface of the coenenchyma is much more coarsely echinulate 

 or granulate. 



d. (Two pieces) Evans Bank, Arafura Sea, Admiralty. 92. 4. 5. 47. 



15 fathoms. 



There is, also from the Evans Bank, a specimen much distorted by re-encrustation. 

 What appears to have been a young stock, or else a detached fragment of an older stock, has 

 been grown over by a layer of fresh coral, about 2 mm. thick, the growing edge being 

 accompanied by an epitheca. A tip of the dead and corroded stock, which has been thus 

 covered up, protrudes, and can be recognised as belonging to this type. That the encrusting 

 layer is of the same coral is a pure assumption. It might, from its structural features, be an 

 encrusting Montipore. It is, however, more probable that it is a re-encrustation of an old 

 stock ; the echinulate or granular surface closely resembling that of A. gracilis. Further, there 

 are a few protuberant calicles tilted towards the growing points ; and, lastly, this encrusting 

 layer sends _up pointed processes very like the small tapering branches of Anacropora. On 

 the other hand, the facts that many of the calicles are flush with the surface, and that the 

 interstitial spaces are here and there raised in papillte (which, however, may be due to the 

 layer having covered over the knoblike calicles of the dead support), strongly suggest that 

 the growth is a Montipore. On account of my deduction of Anacropora from Montipora, I 

 incline to look upon this encrusting layer as belonging to the former. A case of re-encrusta- 

 tion is recorded by Rehberg (see A. spinosa, p. 176). In the submerged calicles, the radial 

 arrangement of the coenenchyma is very marked; the flakes standing perpendicular to the 

 surface, and forming the eehinulse, are, round the calicles, arranged radially and project over 

 the aperture, forming the septa which greatly limit the size of the fossa. The specimen is 

 attached to a spherical horny sponge, much encrusted with calcareous algte. The creeping 

 layer of coral expands slightly over this basal mass, as if to form a fresh attachment. 



e. (Encrusted specimen) Evans Bank, Arafura Sea, Admiralty. 



12 fathoms. 



3. Anacropora erecta. (PI. XXXIV. fig. 18.) 



Description. — Corallum a close tuft of thin, irregularly fusing stems and branches which 

 -tend to point upwards. The thicker basal stems are about 5 mm., the younger branches about 

 3 mm. in diameter. 



Calicles raised on slight rounded knobs ; aperture small, • 6 mm., frequently narrow and 

 elliptical, and somewhat inconspicuous. The long diameter of the aperture crosses the direc- 

 tion of growth at right angles, the directive septa coinciding with the short diameter. These 

 septa approach the centre of the fossa ; the remaining septa are often very irregular. The 



