BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
316 
Gregory has omitted the names of three species that should be placed in this synonymy. Forties 
polymorphus Link 1 is simply a new name for Madrepora porites of Pallas. Reference is made to pi. xxi 
of Esper, which belongs in the Porites clavaria group of Lamarck, pi. xxi a is different. The genus 
Forties does not date from Lamarck 1816, but from Link 1807. The type species is Madrepora porites 
Pallas, here restricted and called Forties porites (Pallas). Lamarck did not use Forties in his Systeme 
des Animaux sans Vertebres, 1801. The other species omitted by Gregory are Porites valida Duchas- 
saing & Michelotti, 2 and Porites nodifera Klunzinger. 3 Rehberg in his “Neue und wenigbekannte 
Korallen” 4 says that Klunzinger’s P. nodifera is probably the same as P. clavaria , and that the locality, 
Red Sea, as given by Ehrenberg and Klunzinger, is erroneous. I studied carefully the figured type 
of nodifera in the Museum fiir Naturkunde, Berlin, and in my opinion nodifera and clavaria are the 
same, and it seems to me most probable that Rehberg’s suggestion as to the wrong locality label 
becoming attached to the specimen is correct. 
I have divided this species, as represented by Porto Rican specimens, into three formse, viz, 
clavaria and furcata, both of Lamarck, and divaricata Le Sueur. The Porto Rican specimens do not 
show intergradation between the three formfe, but the splendid suites in the United States National 
Museum show the perfect passage of one form into another. 
Porites porites forma clavaria Lamarck. PI. xxix and PI. xxxi, fig. 2. 
There are live specimens of the form, either complete colonies or fragments. PI. xxix, repre- 
sents one of the specimens and pi. xxxr, fig. 2, the calices enlarged. There are no indications in these 
specimens of an intergradation with forma furcata, the larger size and especially the more swollen 
and blunter ends of the branches being the most salient difference from the latter. But the calices also 
are usually different. They are shallow, deeper on the ends of the branches, and are usually 2 mm. 
in diameter. A columella, represented by a tubercle and surrounded by six pali, is usually present. 
On the ends of the branches, where the calices are deeper, the pali are not so well developed. 
The septa are perforate lamellae, as Bernard has described them. 5 The height to which the 
epitheca rises is so variable that no importance is attached to it. 
From Ensenada Honda, Culebra. 
Porites porites forma furcata Lamarck. PI. xxx and PI. xxxi, fig. 1. 
The branches of this species are more slender than in clavaria. The calices are smaller, 1.5 mm. 
in diameter. No absolute distinction can be made based on the calicular structure, but usually in 
furcata there are only five pali. 
From Ensenada Honda, Culebra. 
Porites porites forma divaricata Le Sueur. PL ii, figs. 4, 4a, 4 b. 
Twenty specimens of a delicate species of Porites were collected at station 6087, off Culebra, Point 
Mula light-house, in 15^ fathoms of water. These at first appeared to me so different from the other 
specimens that 1 thought they certainly belonged to a distinct species. From a comparison with the 
large suites of forma furcata in the United States National Museum they now seem to me to intergrade 
with forma furcata, divaricata being much more delicate. The figures show the characters well. The 
most salient characteristic is the small diameter of the branches, the largest being only 6 mm. in 
diameter. The diameter, too, is almost the same at the distal end as at the origin of the branch. 
The calices are very shallow, 2 mm. in diameter. The wall is narrow, flattish, or subacute. 
The specimens were associated with Oculina diffusa, Axlielia mirabilis, and Meandrina mseandritesf 
young. 
1 Beschreib. Natur. Samml., Rostock, 1807, p. 162. 1 Abhandl. Naturwiss. Ver. Hamburg, Bd. xii, 1892, p. 47. 
-Sup. M6m. Corail. Ant., p. 94 (of reprint), pi. x, fig. IS. 5 Jour. Linn. Soc. London, vol. xxvii, 1899, p. 137. 
3 Die Korallenthiere des Rothen Meeres, pt. n, p. 41. 
