Madreporaria forming perforate or imperforate coralla. Solitary or colonial. The zooids have usually a large number of mesenteries arranged in two or more cycles. The mesenteries beyond the protocnemic pairs arise in unilateral pairs in chambers other than those between the directives.
Sect. 1. Aporosa.—Cyclocnemaria in which the theca and septa are not perforated. The zooids of the colonial forms may communicate by means of superficial canals of the coenosarc, or they may be in contact with one another only at their edges.
Several families are included in this section, of which the more important are:—
Fam. 1. Turbinoliidae.—The corals included in this family are mostly solitary forms attached to foreign objects, or living partly embedded in sand. In some cases a small colony is formed by gemmation.
The genus Flabellum is a solitary coral of a compressed top shape. It has a large number of septa arranged radially on the cup-wall. This cup-wall is not a true theca but an epitheca. In some forms root-like tubes grow out from the sides of the cup near its base and may serve to support the coral on solid objects. In some remarkably fine specimens recently obtained from the Persian Gulf these tubes served to attach the coral to a telegraph cable. Flabellum seems to be cosmopolitan in its distribution. It is usually found in deep or moderately deep water, but some specimens have been dredged in water of 2 to 9 fathoms.
Fig. 174.—Side view of Trochocyathus hastatus, with exsert septa, well-marked costae (c), and with three spinous projections (Sp) at the base formed by outgrowths from primary costae. (After G. C. Bourne.)
Caryophyllia is a conical coral fixed by a slightly expanded base. The cup-wall is a true theca covered below by an epitheca. There is a spongy columella surrounded by a single circle of pali. There is one British species, C. smithii. It is found attached to shells at a depth of about thirty fathoms near the Eddystone Lighthouse and in other localities in the English Channel. It also occurs between tide marks in the Scilly Islands, and is found off the Shetlands, on the west coast of Scotland, and the south-west of Ireland. The genus is widely distributed and extends from shallow water to depths of 1500 fathoms. Caryophyllia sometimes occurs in clusters which have the appearance of an incipient colony. This may be due to the embryos fixing themselves upon the epitheca of existing individuals and developing there. It is doubtful whether the species ever reproduce asexually either by gemmation or by fission. When the zooid is fully expanded it projects some distance above the corallum and shows a very transparent body-wall with a crown of some fifty tentacles. Each tentacle terminates in a globose head (Fig. 169) charged with nematocysts. The general colour is pale pink, and there is a broad brown circle round the mouth. Large specimens may be three-quarters of an inch in diameter.
Turbinolia is a common Eocene fossil genus found in England and France, and is stated to occur in the Caribbean Sea. The columella stands up like a stylet and the septa are "exsert," i.e. project above the rim of the theca.
Trochocyathus is a genus with well-marked "costae" occurring in tropical shallow water (Fig. 174).