﻿178 MADREPORARIA. 



137. Montipora profunda. 



Description. — Corallum, complete form unknown, massive, with drooping and creeping 

 edges in close contact with the substratum ; a well developed epitheca projecting slightly 

 beyond the coenenchyma. 



CaUcles conspicuous, circular, slightly less than 1 mm. diameter, sunk deeply in the 

 pits formed by interstitial ramparts, septal apparatus symmetrical, in two cycles evenly 

 developed, the primaries reaching to near the half radius circle, the secondaries being about 

 half the size. Calicles very deep, running straight down through the corallum, showing in 

 vertical section long straight series of interruptedly laminate septa, much more developed than 

 near the aperture, and with slightly swollen free edges. Jlinute developing calicles are found 

 here and there at the angles where the thick interstitial ramparts meet. 



Coenenchyma in section a pure reticulum streaming continuously upwards, compact, but 

 getting looser nearer the surface. At the surface the interstitial ramparts swell up evenly 

 into thick ramparts, which consist of closely packed flakes, perforated so as to form a laminate 

 reticulum with fine irregular echinulre rising up from its surface. On the drooping sides the 

 ramparts rise irregularly, making the surface uneven. 



Tliis massive coral belongs to the foveolate group and should be associated with 

 M. foveolata and M. turgesccns. The calicles have the same circular outline and symmetrical 

 septal apparatus. The septa are, however, rather thinner and more prominent, and the 

 ramparts more evenly rounded, and the surface reticulum is more delicate. 



a, h. Funafuti, Ellice Island. CoU. Gardiner. (Types.) 



Montipora caliculata, var. piriformis. 

 [For description, see pp. 57-59.] 



Under this heading a pear-shaped stock, from the Solomon Islands, rising on a stalk of 

 corroded coral, down which it was creeping, is described in the text. It shows the foveolate 

 specialisation of the coenenchyma, but the calicles are very much smaller than in 31. foveolata, 

 and further they rise in considerable numbers, surrounded by circular walls. This character 

 seemed to ally the specimen with M. caliculata. 



There are in the Cambridge University Museum two large, very massive stocks, from 

 Funafuti, with more or less smooth rounded tops and thick perpendicularly drooping edges. 

 They closely resemble the specimen above described. The larger specimen of the two actually 

 approaches the pear-shape. The chief difference appears to lie in the size of the calicles, which 

 are larger than in the specimen from the Solomon Islands. I am not disposed to lay much 

 stress on this in \iew of the facts (1) that the calicles have the same general character, both 

 alike resembling the calicles of M. foveolata, with their symmetrical rings of twelve short 

 septa and open fossa ; (2) that the calicles in M. foveolata vary greatly in size, in some speci- 

 mens surpassing the calicles of all other known Montipores. 



