OCR Text |
Show 744 MR. J. STANLEY GARDINER ON [jUtte 6. 5. CCELORIA EDWARDSI, n. sp. (Plate XLVI. fig. 6.) The corallum has the same general mode of growth as in 0. dcedalea, but appears primarily to form low, almost flat, spreading masses. The calices are seldom circumscribed, but form long valleys, which are generally sinuous in the centre of the mass, but towards the periphery are almost straight, radiating from the centre and occasionally branching. The epitheca is distinct, but thin and imperfect, with no concentric markings. The theca varies little in thickness, being at the level of the columella about 1 m m . in breadth. It is formed of dense corallum, and grows rather by the deposition of corallum on its upper edge than by thickenings of the septal sides. The septa are very regular, uniform in size, and rather thick, falling into two cycles, the tertiaries being seldom represented. They are continuous over the walls between the serial calices, being uniformly about 1 m m . exsert. The upper edges of the septa above the theca are very uniform, from 2-3 m m . broad, and nearly horizontal; the edges then slope abruptly to the columella on each side, and large teeth are absent. The columella is always distinct in the valleys, about 1 m m . broad. From the surface it looks like an irregular broad row of low spines, but in section is seen to be formed by fine filamentous trabeculae from the septal edges. The interseptal loculi are very deep, endothecal dissepiments being seldom found within 1*2 era. of the surface of the colony. Breadth of the valleys 5-6 mm., usually 5 in 2*7 cm.; depth of the same, from the surface of the columella to the upper edges of the highest septa, 3-4 mm., often less near the edge of the colonv. Septa, 11-12 in 1 cm, (Pl. X L V I . fig. 6.) Rotuma ; reef (?). Funafuti; lagoon-shoal. The Rotuma specimen is a flat colony, 19 by 15*5 cm., about 6 cm. thick in the centre, gradually thinning towards the exterior. The Funafuti specimen is the edge of a mass 6 cm. thick, the central part of which was killed and overgrown by sponges; it hence does not exhibit the same regular arrangement of the valleys, and its septa also are rather thinner. Genus HYDNOPHORA. Hydnophora, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Cor. ii. p. 418 (1857). 1. HYDNOPHORA MICROCONA Lamarck. Monticularia microconos, Lamarck, Hist, des Anim. s. Vert, ii p. 251 (1816). Hydnophora microcona, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Cor. ii. p. 423 (1857). Hydnophora microcona, Klunzinger, Die Korall. des R. Meeres iii. p. 21, pl. iii. fig. 1 (1879). ' I found this species to be by far the most abundant coral |