MALDREPORES. ‘TSI 
pores ; they are inhabitants of the tropical and semi-tropical portions 
of the great oceans, where they are found in a great variety of forms, 
which has led to its subdivision into two great divisions consisting of 
very many genera by Messrs. Milne-Edwards and J. Haime. The 
animals are short, more or less cylindrical, with a rounded mouth 
Fig. 65.—Meandrina cerebriformis (Lamarck). 
placed in the centre of a disc, covered with a few rather short ten- 
tacula; they form by their union a variously-shaped coral, which 
often encrusts other bodies. 
The genus Meandrina differs from that of .4strea in having the 
surface hollowed out into shallow sinuous elongated cells, furnished 
on each side of the mesial line with crenulated lamelle, the columella 
is but little developed; the polypidom, which, like all the group, is 
