26 Coelenterata. 



formis (Linn.), the only difference being that Whitfield's specimen possesses 

 more angular gyrations. 



Vaughan( 5 ) after the study of an enormous amount of coral material and 

 the comparison of many of the type specimens unites previously characterised 

 species to a considerable extent as he finds they are connected by intermediate 

 forms. Some species have been reduced to formse or varieties. The author 

 makes some changes in the nomenclature of corals. The true Mceandrina 

 (of Lamarck) is the Pectinia of Edwards & Haime; the M. of E. & H. is to 

 be known henceforward as Platygyra and the name Pectinia is substituted for 

 the Tridacophyllia of E. & H. Similarly Isopora deposes Madrepora; there is 

 only one species which may be conveniently divided into 3 varieties 

 muricata (cervicornis), prolifera and palmata. Of branching Porites in the 

 West-Indian waters there is only one species (porites) occurring in 3 formse; 

 specimens in the U. S. Museum show perfectly the passage of one form into 

 another. P. astrceoides, the unbranched massive form in which the surface of 

 the coral is covered with gibbosities, is divided into 2 formse. Cyathooeras 1 n. 

 and a new variety of Astrangia are described. See Whitfieldp) and Vaughan( 2 , 4 ). 



Gregory deals with about 8000 specimens of Jurassic corals from Cutch. 

 The most striking feature is the prevalence of small patelliforin corals and of 

 rounded nodular coralla in the massive forms. There is a marked absence of 

 corals with the arborescent growth so common in the European Jurassic species. 

 Even genera in which the coralla are typically csespitose (e. g. Goniocora and 

 Latomceandra) are represented in Cutch by low nodular coralla. Encrusting 

 corals are very scarce. Perhaps the corals grew on a loose sea floor exposed 

 to such strong currents that arborescent and lamellar growth was impossible. 

 In spite of the great local abundance of corals in the Upper Putchum beds 

 (from which most of the specimens were obtained) the deposit is not a coral 

 reef, but rather a coral bank. These corals cannot have formed coral rocks 

 and moreover they seem to have lived below the depth of surf-action. See 

 Lambe, Reis and Vaughan( 3 ). 



Lebedew distinguishes 3 types of the Devonian coral fauna of 

 Russia: (1) the fauna of Poland, Transcaucasia and Petchoraland which is 

 similar to that of Western Europe but also contains an insignificant number 

 of American forms ; (2) the fauna of north western and central Russia, charac- 

 terised by the preponderance of Tabulata especially Syringoporidse and by the 

 absence of Acervularia, Phillipsastrcea , Spongophyllum , Endophyllum etc.; 

 (3) the fauna of the Ural and Altai Mountains, Western Siberia and Turkestan, 

 distinguished by the presence of a considerable proportion of American forms, 

 the rest of the corals resembling those of Western Europe. The coral fauna 

 of Northern Siberia consists of cosmopolitan forms which give it no distinctive 

 character. The author records 212 species (Calopliyllivrn 1 n., Campophyllum 1 n., 

 Cyathophyllum 5 n.). 



Crossland states that the island of Zanzibar was formed as part of a great 

 barrier reef on the coast of East Africa, which is here exceptionally distant 

 from land in correspondence with the outward bend of the 100 fin. line. Coral 

 exists at present at a level of 250 feet above the sea, but the original elevation 

 must have been much more. The fringing reefs of the east coast have not 

 been formed by recent growth but are due to the erosion of the raised rock 

 by the waves. The height of the raised edge is that of the original shore 

 platform, the boat channel being a secondary formation. It is remarkable that 

 the reef edge should not be growing as all the physical conditions seem favour- 



