FAMILIES AND GENEEA OF THE MADREPOEAEIA. 



95 



Grenus Scapophtllia, Milne- JEdwards Sf Jules Haime, Hist. Nat. 

 des Corall. vol. ii. p. 386, pi. 8. fig. 8 (1857); Ann. des ISci. 

 JSTat. t. X. ser. 3 (1849). 



Colony massive, tall, c}lindro-conical, erect, dense. Corallites 

 united by their walls. Valleys short, very flexuous and shallow, 

 and their calicular centres distinct. Occasionally simple calices 

 present. Columella small, deep. Septa few in number, exsert, 

 very echinulate laterally, the larger enlarged towards the colu- 

 mella, where the dentitions are the longest. Interseptal loculi 

 deep. Dissepiments simple and wide apart. Collines variable in 

 length, costulated, broad. 



Distrihution. — Mecent. Chinese seas, Japan. 



Tribe II. 



Genus Pleeogtea, Milne-Edwards Sf Jules Uaime, Compt. Bend, 

 de VAcad. des Sci. t. xxvii. p. 468 (1848). 

 Syn. Gyrosmilia, Ed. & H. 



The colony is composed of a series of long, thick, sinuous coral- 

 lites, which unite more or less completely by their walls. The 

 calicinal centres are moderately distinct. There is no columella. 

 The entire septa are exsert, large, distant, nearly smooth, and 

 often folded a little. The interseptal loculi are broad, almost 

 superficial, or deep, and are closed below by large vesicular dis- 

 sepiments. The costse project but little, and disappear under a 

 great development of mural vesicular tissue. Epitheca absent or 

 rudimentary. 



The genus may be divided into three groups of species : — 



1. Species in which the walls are incompletely soldered. 



2. Species in which the walls are completely united. 



3. Species with subcristiform costse, a rudimentary epitheca, 



and endotheca deep down in the interseptal loculi. 

 This group includes the species of Gyrosmilia, Ed. & H., 

 1857, which is therefore absorbed. 

 Distrihution. — Fossil. Cretaceous; Europe. — Becent. Singa- 

 pore, Banda, East Indies, Eed Sea. 



Genus Phtsogtea, Quelch, Ann. 4' May. Nat. Hist. 1884, 

 xiii. p. 293. 



Corallum compound, form massive, of very light structure, 

 having the calicles in long, sinuous, more or less meandroid 



