EUROPEAN PORITES. 109 



98. Porites Paris Basin 2. (P. Parisiorum secwnda.) 

 [Paiues (Eocene).] 

 Syn. Porites deshaijesiana Michelin, Icon. (1840-47) p. 164, pi. xlv. figs. 4a, 4i. 



Description. — The eoralliim was massive (" Glohoso-gihhosa, ") and very fra"ile. 



Tlie calicles were small, about 1 mm. or less, " difficult to distinguish out of the spongy 

 reticulum." The walls were thin, thread-like, but crisp and ecliinulate, and often incomplete. 

 The septa, twelve in number, were wavy, crisp, and frequently meeting an incomplete 

 columellar ring ; the interseptal loculi deep and open, the central fossa frequently filled with 

 tissue. 



The original figure from which most of these details are taken leaves no doubt as to the 

 specimen being a true Porites, and it is surprising that Milne-Edwards and Haime * transferred 

 it to Litharma (as L. deshayesana) with its twenty-four septa. In the description given in Les 

 Coralliaires iii. (1860) p. 187, the calicles are said to be from 1-5 to 2 mm., that is, con- 

 siderably larger than sliown in Michelin's figure. As these authors give in addition to Parnes 

 a second locality Aitvert, they may have had another specimen and have jumped to the con- 

 clusion that the two forms belonged to one and the same species. 



Keuss t records another form somewhat resembling this coral from the hard limestone of 

 Waschburg near Stockerau, but it is too badly preserved to admit of exact working out. 



99. Porites Bouches-du-Rhone 1. {P. Bhodani jmma.) 

 [Carri-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhone (Miocene).] 

 Syn. Porites incrustans M.-E. & H., Pol. Foss. d. Terr. Pal. (1851) p. 143. 



Description. — The corallum was massive, convex or sublobate. 



The calicles were 1 • 5 mm. or slightly larger, unequal, shallow {"peu profond, "). The walls 

 were thin, polygonal and denticulate. The septa, twelve in number, were pronounced, thin, 

 ending in two or three small tubercles, a little smaller than the pali. The septa are nearly 

 uniform and usually fuse together in pairs. As a rule, there are five large triangular pali, 

 with one, two or three smaller ones. A small, central, columellar tubercle was present. 



This description certainly seems to refer to a true Porites, and we may gather, with some 

 probability of being correct, that it came from the locality above mentioned. So much is 

 simple and clear, and such a simple fact would have been useful for all time, but the 

 gratuitous additions envelop it at once in confusion. 



The coral was thought to belong to the species " incrustans " of Defrance. As far as I can 



* Pol. Fos.s. d. Terr. Pal. (1851) p. 14.3. 



t Naturwiss. Abh. von Haidinger, ii. (1848) p. 29. 



