OCR Text |
Show 738 MR. J. STANLEY GARDINER ON [June 6, Dana's figure and description of the living animal:-"Animal chestnut-brown; disks long, sinuous and multilobate, bright green." Further, the tentacles are very short, of a darker brown colour and apparently in three rows. The corallum agrees with Dana's description so far as it goes, save that no importance can be placed on the septal teeth, and the calices are usually deeper than represented in Dana's section. The epitheca cannot be distinguished. The costae are marked only by spines, which are similar to those of M. cactus, but smaller and more distant. The columella is generally very small in the older and more completely circumscribed calices. It is formed merely by a few trabeculae from the septal edges, and is covered with fine pointed spines. Rotuma ; very common with M. cactus in the same pools near Solkopi. 4. MUSSA HEMPRICHI Ehrenberg. Manicina hemprichi, Ehrenberg, Coral, p. 101 (1834). Mussa hemprichi, Klunzinger, Die Korall. des R. Meeres, iii. p. 8, pl. i. figs. 3 & 5 (1879). Three specimens, which agree well wdth the forms identified by Klunzinger with this species of Ehrenberg. Rotuma ; reef. Wakaya, Fiji; reef. 5. MUSSA SINUOSA Lamarck. Caryophyllia sinuosa, Lamarck, Hist, des Anim. s. Vert. ii. p. 229 (1816). Mussa sinuosa, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Cor. ii. p. 333 (1S57). Wakaya, Fiji; reef. One specimen, doubtfully referred to this species. Genus SYMPHYLLIA. Symphyllia, Milne-Edwards & Haime. Comp. rend, de l'Acad. des Sc. xxvii. p. 491 (1848), and Cor. ii. p. 369 (1857). The remarks made on the specific characters of the genus Mussa apply equally well to this genus, so far as the different modes of growth will allow. 1. SYMPHYLLIA SINUOSA Quoy & Gaimard. (Plate XLVIII fig. 1). Mceandrina sinuosa, Quoy & Gaimard, Voy. de l'Astr., Zooph p. 227, pl. viii. figs. 4-5 (1833). Symphyllia sinuosa, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Ann. des Sc. Nat. ser. 3, x. pl. viii. fig. 7 (1848), and Cor. ii. p. 370 (1857). There are two specimens of this well-characterized species. Septa of four cycles, the fourth incomplete, are present. Fresh calicinal centres are formed on the septa by the deposition of corallum on the floor and walls of the valleys ; the septal edges then break up on further growth. Usually the calicinal centres |