742 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



turbinate, gibbous, digitiform, dendroid, or spread out in plates. There 

 are about twenty fossil species known, and tbey appear as late as the 

 later Mesozoic rocks. Diechora'a is a Microsolena in wbich tbe septa 

 are not confluent. It would belong to the turbinate division, but 

 must be placed in a genus by itself, for the septa are not only trabe- 

 cular, irregular and distinct, but the gemmation is most peculiar, 

 being intracalicular and in congeries of individuals, rising one above 

 another. The walls are also entire above, and form more or less 

 complete partitions above with none of that open, spongy tissue which 

 occurs in Alveopora, neither are there any of those horizontal partitions 

 across the cells, which give that genus the tabulate character of the 

 ancient Favosites. From these peculiarities of the walls, septa, and 

 mode of gemmation, the name of Biechorcea is given (from Stc'xw, to 

 stand apart, in allusion to the non-confluent septa). The genus is thus 

 characterized : — Poritiua; with the individuals enclosed in a common 

 and conspicuous epitheca, like Microsulena, but with the septa not 

 confluent, apart and trabecular ; gemmation intracalicular. 



We may suppose that the real septa upon which the animal rests 

 are the granular points on the summit of tlie wall, and that the 

 spiculas or pseudosepta in the fossa are the supports for the base of 

 the animal. The calices themselves are quite microscopic, three or 

 four of them occupying no more than the sjiace of a millimetre. 



PhyUopora is one of the Seriatoporidne. Ca3uenchyma hispid, 

 compact ; tabulte rarely visible ; calices distant ; septa exsert, dis- 

 tinct, and in cycles. 



Balanophyllia dentata (Madrejiorida!) was parasitic upon a Polyzoon 

 {Eschara) from the south coast of Australia, and was so completely 

 imbedded in the foliations that they had to be broken away to ex- 

 tract it. 



The author is not aware whether any other instances are known of 

 corals growing on tufts of Polyzoa, but as this has been found, col- 

 lectors will probably make a more diligent search, as the specimen of 

 Eschar a had been a long time in the Macleayau Museum, and had 

 been many times handled before the existence of the Balanophyllia 

 was observed. 



In other papers * six other new species of corals are described, 

 viz. : — ('from Darnley Island) Symphyllia JiemispJierica, Mussa solida, 

 31. laciniata (from Wellington, New Zealand), Cylicia Huttoni, G. 

 vacua, and (from north-east coast of Australia) Placotrochus pedicel- 

 latus. 



Ctenophora of the Gulf of Naples, t — Di'. Carl Chun's arrange- 

 ment of these forms is as follows : — 



Tentaculata. 

 With " grappling-lines." 

 Two long tentacles, simple or beset with lateral filaments. All 

 the vessels end blindly. 1. CydippidcB. 



Tufts of grappling-lines which are set on either side of the 



* 'Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.,' iii. (1878), pp. 128 and 131. 

 t 'Mitth. Zool. Stat. Neapel,' i. (1879) p. 180. 



