119 



to shew that field Geologists, in the study of the Devonian 

 and Carboniferous Limestones, and in the Coralline strata of 

 the Oolites, have discovered the striking resemblance existing 

 between ancient and modem Coralliferous structures. 



Tossil Corals are important objects to the palaeontologist, 

 inasmuch as these organisms formed an integral portion of the 

 body of the Polyp, and are not an inert secretion therefrom, as 

 was formerly supposed. The characters furnished, therefore, 

 by the corallum, or skeleton, being the petrified details of the 

 chorion, have a well defined zoological value, and afford good 

 characters for the bases of their classification. These organisms 

 farther attest the fact, that the regions of the globe in which 

 fossil Corals are found, were formed under physical conditions 

 similar to those that now prevail in the Indo-Pacific Ocean : 

 we have every reason for believing that the growth and 

 development of ancient reefs were regulated by laws similar to 

 those which govern like phenomena in modern time. It has, 

 however, been shewn by MM Edwards and Haime', — the 

 highest authorities on this class, — that there is a palaeozoic, or 

 ancient type of Coral organization represented by the order 

 ZoANTHARiA KUGOSA, and a modern or neozoic type by the 

 order Zoantharia aporosa; still we do not suppose that this 

 difference affected the relations subsisting between the Polyps' Hfe 

 and the physical conditions under which both ancient and 

 modern were developed. Sir Charles Lyeli;, * however, 

 suggests that such might have been the case, although I fail to 

 see any reasonable ground to support the learned author's 

 opinion. The following is the passage referred to : — " It is not 

 enough, therefore, to say that the primary, or more ancient 

 Corals are generically and specifically dissimilar from the secondary, 

 tertiary, and Hving Corals — for, more than this, aU the most 

 conspicuous forms, viz. : — the cup, and star Corals, belong to a 

 distinct order, although they are often so like in outward form 

 as to have been referred in many cases to reef-building genera. 

 Hence we must not too confidently draw conclusions from the 

 modem to the palaeozoic Polyps, respecting chmate and the 



* Elements of Geology, page 512, 6th Edition, 1865. 



