154 EOCENE AND LOWER OLIGOCENE CORAL FAUNAS. 



Family FUlSrG-ID.3i; Milne-Edwards and Hainie. 

 Genus SIDERASTREA de Blaiuville. 



ISOl. Asfrea (pars) Lamarck. Syst. d. anim. saus vertebres, p. 371 (uon Astra-a 



Bolteii i\Ius. Bolteiiiauum, p. 79, 179S). 

 1815. Antraa Oken. Lebrb. der Natarg., Vol. I, p. 75. 

 1830. Siderastrm de Blaiuville. Diet. d. Sni. iiat., Vol. LX, p. 335. 

 1846. Sidcrina Dana. Zoophytes Wilkes Expl. Exp., p. 218. 

 1848, ISiderastrci'a Milue-Edwards and Haime. Couip. rendus Acatl. sci., Vol. XXVII, 



p. 495. 

 1857. Astrwa Milne-Edwards and Haime. Hist. Nat. des CoralL, Vol. II, p. 505. 

 18(51. Astraa de Froraentel. Introd. n I'fCtude des Polyp, foss., p. 235. 

 1886. Siderastra'a Quelcli. Reef corals : Cballeuger Reports, p. 113. 

 1890. Siderastrwa Verrill. In Dana's Corals and Coral Islands, 3d ed., p. 424. 

 1895. AKtraa Gregory. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. Lond., Vol. LI, p. 278. 



]\Iore references might be inserted in this synonymy, but it seems that 

 a sufficiently large number have been given. 



The synonym of this genus has been very much debated; therefore 

 the question will be discussed here somewhat thoroughly. The name 

 Astraea was first used in a binomial way by Bolten in 1798 for mollusks, 

 now referred to Astralium and Xenophora.^ 



Astrpea had previously been used for a coral (by Browne in 17.56"). 

 Gmelin used it in the thirteenth edition of the Linntei Systema Naturje, 

 1790, page 3767, but merely in a quotation from Browne. The name 

 reappears in the 1789 edition of Bi'owne's work. In none of these 

 cases was Astra?a used in a binomial manner. The first binomial author 

 to publish the name Astrtea as a generic term was Bolten, and the name 

 must date from him. I have not looked up the synonymy of Astrtea in 

 moUusca, but it seems to be antedated by several other names for the same 

 thing-, and therefore is not used in moUuscan nomenclature. "Once a syno- 

 nym, always a synonym;" therefore the name can not be used for a genus 

 of corals. 



The following is the history of the name among corals: Lamarck, in 

 1801, proposed the genus Astrea, separating it "into two sections, one having 

 for its type Madrcpora rohdosa of Ellis and Solander, and the other Madre- 

 pora galaxea of the same authors; subsequently the name Astrsea was 



' I have heen able to examine a copy of the Museum Roltenianuui througli the courtesy of Dr. 

 William H. Dall. 



-Civil aud Natural History of Jamaica, p. 392. 



