THE STONY CORALS OF THE PORTO RICAN WATERS. 
295 
Axhelia mirabilis (Duchassaing & Michelotti). PL i, fig. 3, 3a. 
1861. Stylophora mirabilis, Duchassaing & Michelotti, Mfem. Corall. Ant., p. 62 (of reprint), pi. ix, figs. 6, 7. 
1874. Axohelia mirabilis, Pourtales, 111. Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool., No. vnr, p. 41, pi. vm, fig. 4. 
1880. Axohelia mirabilis, PourtaRs, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., yol. vi. No. 4, p. 107. 
A single specimen of this species was obtained at station 6051, off entrance to San Juan Harbor, in 
43 fathoms of water. 
Pourtales has called attention to the specific identity of Stylophora mirabilis Duchassaing & Miche- 
lotti, Stylophora dumetosa Duchassaing, and what he had previously identified as Axohelia myriaster 
Milne-Edwards & Haime. He seemed doubtful concerning his own Axohelia schrammi. 1 We have 
good suites of specimens in the United States National Museum, so I do not hesitate to include Axohelia 
schrammi also in the synonymy of mirabilis. I can discover no criterional characters from the 
description or figure of Ax. myriaster by which the West Indian species can be separated from it. The 
branches may or may not he very coalescent. But as the original locality for myriaster is given as the 
East Indies, and as I have not studied the type, I have followed Pourtales in giving the name mirabilis 
to this West Indian species. The Axhelia decactis (Lyman) is a different species. Some specimens 
in the United States National Museum from off Arrowsmith Bank, Yucatan, 130 to 167 fathoms, Cat. 
No. 10279, are interesting because they show on the same specimen both striate and echinulate ccenen- 
chyma. The echinulations may be tall and coarse, or delicate. 
The principal difference between the specimens here referred to asperula and those referred to 
mirabilis consists in the branches of the former being not so attenuate as those of the latter species. 
Family EUSMILHLE Verrill. 
Genus MEANDRINA Lamarck, 1801. 
Type species: Meandrina pectinata Lamarck (=' Madrepora mxandrites Ellis & Solander, Nat. Hist. 
Zooph., p. 161, tab. xlviii, fig. 1). 
1801. Meandrina, Lamarck, Syst. Anim. s. Vert., p. 372. 
1815. Pectinia (pars), Oken, Lehrb. Naturgesch., p. 68. 
1815. Mxandira (pars), Oken, op. cit., p. 70, pi. n, second column, bottom fig. (= pi. iv a, Esper, reduced). 
1816. Meandrina (pars), Lamarck, Hist. Nat, Anim. s. Vert., t. n, p. 244. 
1846. Ctenophyllia, Dana, Zooph. Wilkes Expl. Exp., p. 169. 
1848. Ctenophyllia, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Ann. Sci. Nat,, 3Rme s6r., Zool., t. x, p. 276. 
1851. Pectinia, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., t. v, p. 56. 
1857. Pectinia, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Hist, Nat. Corall., t. n, p. 206. 
1884. Pectinia, Duncan, Jour. Linn. Soc. London, vol. xvm, p. S6. 
non 
1820. Meandrina, Schweigger, Handb. Naturgesch., p. 420. 
1846. Meandrina, Dana, Zooph. Wilkes Expl. Exped., p. 252. 
1848. Meandrina, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Comptes Rendus, t. xxvii, p. 493. 
1857. Meandrina, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Hist. Nat. Corall., t. ii, p. 388. Not Mxandrina of subsequent authors. 
This name Meandrina has had a perplexing and exasperating history. When Lamarck proposed 
it, he included only one species in the genus, referring at the same time to a figure by Ellis & Solander; 
this species is Meandrina pectinata of Lamarck, the Madrepora mxandrites of Linnaeus and of Ellis & 
Solander. This species is the type and it can not be supplanted by any other. In 1815 Oken proposed 
the name Pectinia, for a genus in which he included two species, Meandrina pectinata and Madrepora 
lactuca. In the same work Oken used Mxandra, which was defined “Mundungen als Furchen 
vielfaltig hin und hergewunden wie hirnwindungen, unverzweigt, in Klumpen.” 2 He included in the 
genus M. areola ( =Manicina areolata (Linn.) ), and M. mxandrites, which he divides into two varieties, 
(a) Gemeines Hirnkorall, Matrepora mxandrites Pallas, labyrinthiformis Linn. Blatter gezahneit. Das 
gewohnliche, das man in Kabinetten antrifft. ’ ’ This is partly Diploria labyrinthiformis, but quite surely a 
considerable number of species are here confused. “(6)Irrgarten, M. labyrinthiformis Pallas, mxandrites 
Linn.; Blatter ungezahnelt. Sehr selten, Amerika, auch im Mittelmeer,” u. s. w. This is Meandrina 
mxandrites (Linn.). “Hieher Matrepora gyrosa, dxdalea, natans.” 
'Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. vi, No. 4, 1880, p. 107. 
2 Lehrb. Naturg , p. 70. 
