NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 261 



A specimen of what seems to have been a fragment of this coral 

 was figured by David lire in liis Natural History of Eutherglen 

 and East Kilbride, in the year 1793, pi. xix., fig. 11. Ure does 

 not describe the specimen further than by stating that it was 

 beautiful on account of its denticulation, and that it was rare. 

 He phaced it among his Coralloides. 



Prof. M'Coy's Serpula hexicariiiata evidently belongs to this 

 coral, or to a closely allied species of Heterophjllia. His specimen 

 seems to have shown no internal structure, nor any of the external 

 spinous processes: this led him to conclude that it was some 

 anomalous species of Serjmla. The absence of structure and 

 external markings may have been due to the specimen having 

 been preserved in a crystalline limestone. M'Coy thus defines the 

 organism in his carl)oniferous fossils of Ireland. "Serjmla hexicar- 

 inata, pi. xxiii., fig. 28, sp. ch. Elongate, slightly flexuous, hexagonal; 

 sides nearly equal, smooth, flat; rounded, prominent keel on each 

 of the angles. This species is easily distinguished from any other 

 of the Palaeozoic Serpulce-, by the hexagonal form of the tube, and 

 the six narrow rounded keels on the angles. Length usually 

 about two inches, width half a length." 



So closely does the above description answer to small, worn 

 specimens of //. mirahilis, that my specimens were long identified 

 with M'Coy's fossil, and as such appeared with his name in my 

 lists with a C?), as I was satisfied that it could not belong to the 

 genus Serpula, but was a zoophyte closely allied to other forms I had 

 found at Brockley near Lesmahagow, which Dr Duncan has now 

 placed, no doubt correctly, among Professor M'Coy's Heterophyllia.^' 



Craigenglen, Campsie, has yielded the finest preserved specimens 

 of the coral under discussion, and as these specimens seem to prove 

 the identity of the two so-called species, one of the specific names 

 adopted by Dr Duncan must be allowed to drop. I would, there- 

 fore, suggest that that of H. mirahilis be the one retained, as it is 



* In the Catalogue of the collection of fossils in the Museum of Practical 

 Geology, page 129, Serpula hexagona is mentioned from the Glasgow district. 

 Unfortunately, as the authorities for the species are not given in that work, I 

 am unable to state whether that species be the same as M'Coy's -S'. hexicarinata. 

 Biit I suspect that it is, and if so, then it must be referred to the genus of 

 corals in question, for I know of no hexagonal form of Serpula from the 

 carboniferous strata of Scotland, especially from the Gla-sgow district, with the 

 fossils of which I am well acquainted. 



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