REPORT ON CORALS — HYDROCORALLIN.^. 79 



home oft' the coast of Norway, viz., Allopora oculina, obtained by G. 0. Sars in from 

 50 to 100 fathoms, and Stylaster gemmascens, which occurs at great depths in the 

 Foldenfjord. The same species, originally described from the Indian Ocean, occurs in 

 the North Atlantic in 530 fathoms. Stylaster roseus is abundant in a depth of 2 feet 

 below low water mark on the coast of Cuba, 1 and Stylaster punctatus occurs in 9 

 fathoms oft' Florida. 2 Stylaster sanguineus occurs at Florida and New Zealand, and 1 

 dredged a closely allied, if not the same, species in 2 fathoms on the Philippine coast. 

 Cryptohelia came originally from New Guinea. It was dredged by the Challenger 

 in all parts of the world, and up to a depth of 1530 fathoms. Some genera, as 

 Sporadopora and Spinipora, are as yet known only from one locality, but no doubt 

 their range will be extended by further dredging. 



No Stylasteridse are known from geological deposits older than the Tertiary ; indeed, 

 a single species only of one genus, Distichopora, had until lately been described as occur- 

 ring in the fossil condition, viz., Distichopjora antiqua from Tertiary beds at Chaumont, 

 in France. Fossil Stylasteridse have, however, been confounded with Bryozoa, just as 

 Gray confounded the recent Labiopora with Porella. Two species of a genus termed 

 Dendracis, figured by Fr. A. Rorner, 3 which occur in the Oligoccene of Lattorf, are 

 evidently Stylasterids, and probably members of the genus Allopora, in which they 

 have been introduced in the present paper in the list of species, as Allopora tubercidosa 

 and pygmcea. Some calcareous structures from the Cenoman (= middle chalk) figured 

 by the Ritter von Reuss, in the same publication as that containing Romer's paper, 4 

 and placed with Heteroporella as Bryozoa, may very possibly prove allied to Pliobothrus 

 on further examination. Thalamipora, 5 figured by the same author in the same paper, 

 seems to be a Stylasterid bearing large female ampullae, present in abundance and 

 agglomerated, the pore systems being all at the ends of the branches, whilst a deep 

 central gastropore in each system is surrounded by a circlet of from five to seven 

 dactylopores. Von Reuss is in great doubt as to the affinities of this form, but 

 concludes that it is a chambered foraminifer. It is probable that now that their 

 importance and structure is more fully known, abundance of fossil Stylasteridae will be 

 made out. The structure of the Stylasteridas appears to throw no light upon that of 

 the Graptolites. 



1 Pourtales, Deep-Sea Corals, p. 83. 2 Ibid., I.e., p. 36. 



3 Fr. A. Rbmer, Beschreibung cler Norddeutschen tertiaren Polyparien ; Meyer, Pakeontographica, Bd. ix. p. 243, 

 taf. xxxix. fig. 15, a, b, c. 



* Ritter von Reuss, Die Bryozoen des unteren Planer's ; Palseontograplnca, Bd. xx., taf. xxxiii. 

 5 Ibid., p. 138. 



