NOTES ON NEW AND LITTLE KNOWN AUSTRALIAN 
MADR/feORACEiE. 
By W. Saville-Ktcxt, F.L.S., F.E.S., Commissioner of Fisheries, 
Queensland, 
Goniopora fruticosa, S ' p . nor . 
Corallum subdendroid, forming small shrubby growths ; the 
branches subdigitate, somewhat complanate, shortly furcate or 
palmate at their distal extremities ; c^nenchyma highly porous 
and trabeculate ; calicles uneven, very shallow, not exceeding 2 
millimetres in diameter ; septa representing 3 cycles, those of the 
primary cycle frequently developed centrally in a paliform manner 
and forming an irregular hexradiate star. Polypites highly ex- 
tensile, with 21 elongate subulate tentacles ; oral disk white, 
tentacles and column clear liver-brown. Height of coralla G - 8 
centimetres, diameter of branches 1 centimetre. 
Uab. Warrior Reef, Torres Straits. Co-type in the Australian 
Museum, Sydney. 
This species differs from previously described members of the 
genus Goniopora in the subdendroid character of the corallum, 
and which in all other known types is massive or lobate. It was 
collected by the author at extreme low water on the reef in the 
neighbourhood of Tud or Warrior Island, Torres Straits. 
Alveopora spongiosa, Dana. 
This species first described by Dana, Zooph., p. 513, pi. xlviii., 
tier. 3, is referred by Milne Edwards and Haime to the Alveopora 
viridis of Quoy and Gaimard, but from which on reference to 
Quoy and Gaimards original figures and description it is found 
to be essentially distinct. The last named species is represented 
by these authors as forming compound frondose or subdigitate 
expansions, and the polypites are green and brown. In Dana's 
type the coralla are represented by solid lobate masses and the 
polypites, as examined by the author, are clear brown through- 
out with white tips to the tentacles. A form corresponding with 
Alveopora viridis has been also obtained by the author in Torres 
Straits, and the corallites in the two species are found to differ 
essentially in the character of their component calicles. In 
