Some New Species of Fossils from the Cincinnati Group. 353 



crystalize on the surface, at tlie junction of the covallites, on some 

 specimens of worn Montimlipora fbrosa, and not on others, but an ex- 

 amination of several si^ecimens has led me to the conclusion, that such 

 is the ftict. In other words, the attritus of Nicholson is merely a worn 

 specimen of fibrosa. 



If Prof. Nicholson is correct in identifying this species with pitkhella 

 of Edwards and Haime, then pidcMla is merely a synonym for fihrom, 

 but I am not convinced, that these two names are synonymous, on the 

 contrary, I do not think that pnlchella is found here, at all. Edwards 

 and Haime had before them many corals from this locality, and as the 

 coral now referred by Prof. Nicholson to their species is the most 

 abundant coral in our rocks, it would seem highly probable, that, they 

 were in possession of it, when they wrote their work on the British 

 corals, in which they frequently referred to localities for species, in 

 America, yet when making the species pulchalla the only locality men- 

 tioned was England. They described pukliella as follows: 



"Corallum ramose; its branches often somewhat compressed, and 

 from two to four lines in diameter. Tubercles broad not very promin- 

 ent and somewhat stellated. Calices rather regularly hexagonal and 

 very unequal in size ; those that occupy the center of the tubercles 

 about one-fifth of a line in diameter and at least twice as large as those 

 placed in the intervals between the groups thus formed." 



Our species is usually much larger than this one, and it is very rare 

 to find the branches compressed ; the prominences or tubercles are not 

 stellated ; the calices are not regularly hexagonal, though as they are 

 crowded together some of them may be hexagonal, while others are 

 pentagonal or heptagonal or approaching a circle, there being no reg- 

 ularity in their form and no uniformity in their size. In specimens 

 four lines in diameter, the calices, that occupy the center of the tuber- 

 cles, are from i to ^ of a line in diameter ; the distance, from the cen- 

 ter of one tubercle to the center of the next, is about one line, and the 

 average number of calices, in that distance, is about twelve. IMore- 

 over Edwards and Haime distinguished pukhella from Fletcheri, by the 

 more acute angle of bifurcation of the branches, in the former than in 

 the latter, while no such distinguishing character could be applied to 

 our species, as it bifurcates at all angles. Thus it seems, that our 

 species differs, more or kss, in every character, from those ascribed to 

 pulchella by its authors. 



For these reasons, I do not think, that pnlchella exists in the Cincin- 

 nati Group, and it is quite evident, that the corals referred to this 

 species, by Prof. Nicholson, are the same, that were described by Gold- 

 fuss, in 1826, under the specific name /6rosa. If the corals referred to 



