Th® ©am© author give© th® following description of GrbiceXla 
y 
excel ©a Danas 
1/ Trans. Conn. Asad. Sci. , vol. xl , pp. 98, 99, 1902. 
"Dana's type of this specie®, in the Boston Society of Natural 
History, was carefully studied by me a number of years ago, and de- 
scriptions were mads at that time. The typo is apparently slightly 
beach-worn » but so little that the natural surface of the coeneaehym® 
and costa®, and th® summits of th® septa are well preserved in most 
parts, and there is no evidence of post-mortem, alteration by Infil- 
tration to account for the solidity of th© coenenehyma, referred t® 
by Dana, and which is, indeed, quit® remarkable in most parts. Th® 
coral is vary solid and heavy _ as contrasted with £. annularis or 
Sple&aetraea hyades . 
n k fragment , apparently of the same specimen, add which appears 
to have beenused by Dana in describing th® details, is preserved in 
the Museum of Yale University. From tfcis th© sjceomp&ny i&g photograph 
has been made. (PI. xv, fig. 4.) The coral grows in irregular, often 
upright, lobed or gibbous masses , up to 100 to ISO mm. or more high, 
but when young it must be encrusting. Ho. 1729. 
"Th© type specimen is so strongly Xobed that. ft hw lobule© in son 
places look like incipient branches. But these may possibly be due 
to th© coral growing over the tubes of invading bivalves or annelids, 
though none can be seen without sections. Th© cal idee are more 
closely crowded on the lobules, especially at th# obtuse summits, where 
they become angular and are separated by thin walls and cellular exothe- 
ca, Elsewhere the caliclee are nearly circular, scarcely elevated, 
and separated by ex ©thecal spaces usually about equal to th® radii of 
the calicles, but toward the base often equal to their diasssiers. 
The exotheca and wall® are very solid in most parts. 
"Th© 24 costae nr® subequal, thickened, only slightly raised, faintly 
or almost microscopically granulated? those of adjacent caliclba are 
usually separated at th© surface by a slight intermediate groove, form- 
ing polygonal area* around the calicles. The exotheca is nearly level 
with the edges of the wall® and costa®, flat or slightly concave, mi- 
nutely granulated or nearly smooth, sometimes slightly vesicular at 
th® surface, bui^usualiy almost solid and blended with th© costae and 
walls; near th© tips costa© unit® and ©xoiheca is cellular, 
"In a transverse section, near th® surface, the entire partition 
between th® calicloa may % © perfectly solid, whether thick or thin, 
but in many cases on© or two rows of small, rounded or crescent-shaped 
vesicles can be seen, and sometimes, close to the surfac®, vesicular 
dissepiment® are visible between th© small costa®, while close to the 
basal margin of the coral the exotheca may be decidedly vesicular, ap- 
pearing almost like miniature hon©y-coaib\i$ transverse sections. But 
this basal portion is formed by th® thin, down-growing margin, where 
th® new calicloe are very short, oblique, and far apart, as in cany 
other corale that have a thin, proliferous margin. 
