52 F. A. SMITT, 



for examination, it wants the oral avicularium, and its zooecia are all vertically raised 

 from the basal plane of the colony. Furthermore, it is very easily distinguished by 

 its great size, as the zooecia, in one layer eonstituting the thickness of the colony, are 

 about one millimeter high, with an aperture of about \ mm. in breadth. 

 In this last respect, however, it is far exceeded by the 



Cellepora gigas (Pl. IX, figs. 181 and 183—185). 



Char.: Zooecia erecta, utriculata, magis libera, crustam colonia? hispidam exstruunt, 

 poris vulgo minutis perforantur, marginem secundarium aperturse tubiformem erigunt, 

 aviculario laterali rotundo muniuntur. Ooecia rotunda, imperforata, magnam ad partem 

 supra stratum calcificationis eriguntnr. Apertura secundaria zooecii latitudine 0,36 — 0,4 

 mm. fere asquat, altitudo zooeciorum usque ad 2,5 mm. augetur. 



Hab.: Colonias tres hujus speciei in prof. 125 orgyarum cepit Pourtales. 



The bottle-shaped zooecia, which form is accomplished, particularly, by their pro- 

 ducing of the tubiform secondary mouth, together with their size, usually of about 2 

 millim. of length (height), and their Myriozoidan (sinuated) aperture, at once will di- 

 stinguish this species. The form of the colony, also, seems to be characteristical for 

 it, growing in rounded heads," depressed in the middle. These heads are formed by 

 several layers of zooecia, the young ones, of a shining opaline white colour, overgrow- 

 ing the older ones, which have löst their glossy lustre, in the same time making the 

 pores in their wall more obvious. This apparently greater development of the pores 

 in the first zooecial layers of the colony induces me hither to refer a colony of some 

 zooecia in a single layer, which have the pores (fig. 185) distributed all över their 

 front side, almost in the same manner as the preceding species. As in that species, so 

 also in the Cellepura gigas, I have never seen any oral avicularium. 



This, on the contrary, is very constant in the group, for which I used the col- 

 lective name of Cellepora ramulosa, of what group it is very easy to distinguish seve- 

 ral forms, or species, as they have been named, characterized, principally, by the form 

 of the colony; and, indeed, in different localities, these may prove themselves to be 

 constant enough. Still, with this principle, at last one would come to the same con- 

 clusion with Hincks: »the bewilderment increases with the nuinber of specimens exa- 

 mined». Thus, we must cast away all other characters than those drawn from any 

 differences in the form of the colonial organs. In this manner we may admit two 

 seemingly well distinguished series of forms, the one with perforated, the other with 

 imperforated ooecia. All the Floridan forms, which here will be accounted for, belong 

 to the first-named series. 



Cellepora tuberosa l ) (Pl. IX, fig. 180). 



This, as it occurs among the PouRTALES-collections, seems to be very common in 

 the Floridan sea, with a colonial form of rounded, usually compressed knobs, or as 

 incrustations, of a milk- or yellow-white colour, growing on shells and corals at a va- 



') Synonyma vide in Öfvers. Vet. Akad. Förh. 1867, Bill., p. 31. 



