-2 THE GENUS MONTICULITORA. 



(A.nn. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. vi. p. 282, Oct. 1850), was founded 

 in the same year as Monticulipora, and includes forms unques- 

 tionably congeneric with the latter, though I am unable from 

 his figures and descriptions to be sure as to the precise species 

 upon which M'Coy founded his genus. This point, indeed, 

 could only be set at rest by an examination of the original 

 specimens in the Woodwardian Museum, which I have unfor- 

 tunately had no opportunity of inspecting. It is, however, a 

 matter which, I think, will still admit of discussion, as to 

 whether or not M 'Coy's Nebidipora should not be adopted as 

 the title for the fossils now under consideration, rather than 

 the Monticulipora of D'Orbigny. I am not able to decide 

 this point, and I will only remark further, that M'Coy, in his 

 generic diagnosis, states that the walls of Nebidipora are 

 "apparently perforated by rows of small foramina," though he 

 does not allude to this character again, and seems to have been 

 doubtful as to its actual existence. The typical MonticuliporcB 

 are undoubtedly devoid of mural pores ; but I have examined 

 (through the kindness of my friend Mr R. Etheridge, jun.) a 

 specimen from the Wenlock Limestone of Dudley in the col- 

 lection of the British Museum, which has all the external and 

 general characters of such a Monticulipora as M. petropolitana, 

 Pand., but in which the walls of the corallites are unquestion- 

 ably minutely porous. It is not impossible, therefore, that it 

 is upon some such specimen as the preceding that M'Coy 

 founded the statement that I have referred to. 



Earlier than either Montictdipora, D'Orb., or Nebidipora, 

 M'Coy, are the names Orbittdites and Dianidites, proposed by 

 Eichwald (Zool. spec, 1829) for certain Silurian fossils, some 

 of which, at any rate, are forms of Monticidipora. The first 

 of these two names cannot, however, be retained, as it is 

 identical with the previously named Foraminiferous genus 

 Orbitulitcs {Orbitolites) of Lamarck (An. sans Vert., 1801), a 

 genus which has subsequently held its ground. As for the 

 genus Dianulites, Eichw., it is possible that the forms placed 

 in it by this distinguished palaeontologist are really referable 



