474 Mr. W. Lonsdale on the Genus Lithostrotion. 



" Polypier astreiforme. Polypieritcs completement soudes par 

 leurs murailles et prismatiques ; calices tres-inegaux. Dans une 

 coupe horizontal^ on distingue des murailles exterieures, minces 

 et tres-nettes, et des murailles internes seulement indiquees par 

 la limite des traverses vesiculates qui emplissent les parties ex- 

 terieures des loges; columelle petite, comprimee, mais un peu 

 rennee au milieu ; de 40 a 50 cloisons un peu serrees, extreme- 

 ment minces, tres-iinement flexueuses, alternativement un peu 

 inegales ; les grandes arrivant seules pres de la columelle. Grande 

 diagonale des grands calices 10, 12 ou meme 15 millimetres 

 (•39370, '47244 and *59055, or from more than \ to more than 

 i an inch) ; diametre des murailles interieures 5 ou 6 (• 19685 

 and -23622 of an inch)." 



First as respects the altered specific name, adopted apparently 

 from the ' Outlines/ The list of carboniferous corals, given in 

 that work, includes the following announcement : — " Astrea ba- 

 saltiformis. Lithostrotion. Luid. t. 23, and three undescribed 

 species" (op, cit. p. 359). It is however a rule that "a name 

 which has never been clearly denned in some published work 

 should be changed for the earliest name by which the object 

 shall have been so defined * ;" yet in this case an undefined name 

 has been substituted for one which had been defined, or basalti- 

 forme for striatum. Moreover a reference in the e Outlines ' to 

 Lhwyd cannot be regarded as a reference to a clear specific defi- 

 nition, or even to any definition, the terms employed being all 

 applicable to more fossils than one and of different genera ; and 

 though Dr. Fleming's characters are not so precise as the pre- 

 sent state of knowledge requires, still they give a limitation which 

 enables the reader to separate Parkinson's fossil from Lithostr. 

 striatum. 



Before any general remarks are offered on the assigned spe- 

 cific characters and their amount of agreement with the generic, 

 as well as with the fossils considered in the preceding list to be 

 identical with Lhwyd and Fleming's corals, it is thought advi- 

 sable to notice separately the Astrea arachno'ides of De France f 

 (No. 4 of the list). In the ' Archives ' reference is made only to 

 the 'Dictionnaire des Sciences Nature-lies'; but De France in 

 that work quotes Guettard's/ Memoirs' (t. hi. p. 510. pi. 52. f. 2) 

 and Parkinson's ' Organic Remains ' (vol. ii. pi. 5. f. 1. p. 40-41). 



* Propositions for rendering the Nomenclature of Zoology uniform and 

 permanent. Report British Association, 1842; also Annals and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 1st Series, vol. xi. p. 2GG, 267, § 11 & 12. 



f Not the Astrea arachno'ides included in Lamarck, edit. 18.%, t. ii. 

 p. 420. No. t43, a Maestricht fossil; nor the A. arachnoides of' Fleming 

 (Brit. Anim. p. 510), an oolite coral. (Parkinson, Org. Rem. vol. ii. p. i34, 

 pi. 6. f. 4, quoted by Fleming.) 



