PERFORATING BODIES FROMLO"WER PALEOZOIC ROCKS — ETHERrDGE.121 



On Two ADDITIONAL PERFORATING BODIES, believed 



TO BE THALLOPHYTIC CRYPTOGRAMS, from the 



LOWER PALEOZOIC ROCKS of N. S. WALES. 



By R. Etheridge, Junr., Curator. 

 (Plate xxiii.) 



In 1891 I described* a perforating Thallophyte under the name 

 of PaJceachlya tortuosa, occurring in the tissues of a Pernio- Car- 

 boniferous Monticuliporoid from Queensland, and an Endophytic 

 form, then believed to be allied to the Saprolegnian Fungi, met 

 with in the old visceral cavities of another coral ( Stenopora crinita, 

 Lonsdale) from rocks of the same age in New South Wales. The 

 latter was termed Palceopero7ie endophytica. 



For the first of these minute and interesting fossils I used the 

 late Prof. P. M. Duncan's genus Palceachlya,j proposed by him 

 for the reception of certain supposed fungal borings detected in 

 the corallums of Tertiary and Palaeozoic corals, particularly 

 Goniophyllum pyramidale and Calceola sandalina. 



The recent examination of a well preserved Favosites, from the 

 Devonian Limestones of the Tamwortli District, has revealed the 

 presence of two highly interesting perforating forms, one of which 

 is, in all probability, allied to P. tortitosa, while the other is cer- 

 tainly quite distinct. The second being much the more important, 

 will be described first. 



The tissues of the Favosites are penetrated in various directions, 

 but, more commonly by far, at right angles to the coral's growth, by 

 longer or shorter chains of moniliform cells (PI. xxiii., fig. 1), rather 

 similar to a chain figured! by Prof. P. M. Duncan in the tissues of 

 Goniophyllum. These lines of monillte divide at irregular distances 

 apart, either at an acute or obtuse angle, as the case may be, but 

 no inosculation, contortion, or returning on themselves occur, 

 although there is a certain amount of curvature. To use an 

 expression of Prof. P. M. Duncan's, the chains " often dip out of 

 and come within the focus of the microscope, in their more or less 

 long course. "§ At times they are widely separated, at others 

 crowded together, the calibre of both the parent portions and 

 branches being practically the same, the oifshoots being quite as 



* Rec. Geol. Surv. N.S.W., ii., 3, 1891, p. 95. 



t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, xxxii., 1876, p. 210. 



X Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, xxxii., 1876, pi. xvi, fig. 9. 



§ Proc. Eoy. Soc, xxv., 174, 1876, p. 243. 



