OCR Text |
Show 214 PROF. P. MARTIN DUNCAN ON [Feb. 7, Caryophyllia with more than four perfect cycles of septa. CARYOPHYLLIA CYATHUS, Lamarck, Syst. des Anim. sans verteb., 1801. The corallum is tall, slightly bent, subturbinate, _ slightly compressed, and has a base much narrower than the calicular opening. The costae are only distinct for a short distance from the calice; and then they become flat and only occasionally visible, being separated by indistinct lines and ornamented by numerous small granules which are placed across the costae. The whole surface is, as it were, shining and varnished-looking; near the base the costae are not visible, but the granulations and varnished appearance prevail. The calice is longer than broad, elliptical in outline, very deep centrally and shallow at the margins. Some of the septa are slightly exsert, but they do not project much higher than the others; and this is the case with the primaries and other large septa which have no pali before them. The septa are close, stout, and unequal, and there is but little space between them; they are rounded at their upper edge and towards the columella; they are straighter and some are rather large internally. There are many septa of the fifth cycle. The columella is deeply sunken, fasciculate, elliptical in outline, rounded above, and composed of eleven processes well separated. The pali are higher than the columella, stout, and as large as the ends of the septa to which they belong, and from which they are well separated above. There are eighteen of them ; and they are separated by a space from the columella. The height of the coral is 1 ^ inch, and the length of the calice | inch, its breadth being T 9 ¥ inch. This description corresponds specifically with that of M M . Milne- Edwards and Jules Haime in their Hist. Nat. des Corall. vol. ii. p. 13. The columella, however, has fewer processes ; but it is found that there is much variation in that structure in specimens from the Mediterranean, some of which have the same number as the Madeiran form. A smaller specimen has a widely open calice, the columella deeply seated, and the septa barely exsert. The columella is made up of about five twisted processes. The pali are thin, separate, and eighteen in number ; they have granules with little cup-shaped cavities in them, and are much higher than the columella, from which they are well separated above. They are wavy at the edges. The septa, thin and not over close, are wavy here and there at their inner edge, and are granular at the sides. The calice is more circular than that of the larger form ; and the body is shorter. Height f inch. This form can be comprehended by studying sections of larger and mature forms made near their bases. There the granular and more or less distant septa hardly seem possibly to belong to a coral which could develop such a close-set septal arrangement as is seen above. |