64 REPORT — 1856. 



On some New Species of Corals in the Lias of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, 

 and Warwickshire. By the Rev. P. B. Bhodie, M.A., F.G.S. 



The object of this communication is rather to indicate the occurrence of some new 

 and undescribed species of corals in the Lias, than to describe them in detail. They 

 are generally rare in the Lias, the sea in which it was deposited being unfavourable 

 to the growth of Polyparia. A species of Ci/athophylhan and a Flustra have been 

 found by Mr. C. Moore in the Upper Lias of Ilminster, in Somersetshire, in addi- 

 tion to those figured in the ' JNIemoirs of the Pakeontographical Society.' From 

 the Lias marlstone of Northamptonshire a form belonging probably to the Fungidae 

 is in the collection of the late Hugh Strickland, Esq. I have in my collection several 

 specimens of the genus Moidlivallia, which I discovered in the shales of the Lower 

 Lias, in Gloucestersliire, and one or two occur in the same beds in Oxfordshire. From 

 the Lower Lias near Cheltenham, I obtained a small coral, which appears to be a 

 species of Turb'moUa. I have met with a few species of hastrea both in Worcester- 

 shire and Gloucestershire, and in one case in sufficient numbers to show the existence 

 of an ancient coral reef: most of them arc highly solidified, but in others the cells 

 are soft and crumbly, a condition very different to that of most of the Imiixclsastrea. 

 In the Isle of Skye there is a group of corals belonging to this genus nearly a foot in 

 thickness in the lower division of the Lias. 



On a New Species of Pollicipes in the Inferior Oolite near Stroud, in Glouces- 

 tershire. By the Rev. P. B. Bkodie, M.A., F.G.S. 

 The Lepadidre are usually rare in a fossil state, and the specimen which I found 

 at Selsley Hill, near Stroud, appears to be a distinct species from the Pollicipes ooli- 

 ticus in the Stonesfield slate. On comparing the scutum two valves of which are 

 entire, with the same valve of P. ooliticus, there is a sufficient difference to warrant 

 the conclusion that it belongs to a different species. A small valve of another, and 

 probably a distinct species, has been detected in the Lias at Campden, in Gloucester- 

 shire, by Mr. Gavey, the oldest remains of a Cirripede yet discovered. 



On the Basement Beds of the Oolite. 

 By Professor James Buckman, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



The object of this paper was to show that the Pisolite or its equivalents formed 

 the true base of the Inferior Oolite as established by Murchison, Strickland, and the 

 Cotteswold geologists, but in opposition to a theory recently started by Dr. Wright, 

 in which he places certain bands of ferruginous stone resting on the " Inferior Oolite 

 sands " of the Ordnance Surveyors with the Upper Lias, a theory which he attempts 

 to support from the presence of a number of Cephalopoda therein contained, some of 

 which are truly liassic, but the majority are peculiar to the so-called ' Cephalopoda 

 bed.' 



The Professor contends that the bed is oolitic in structure, and as regards the fossils, 

 only a small per-centage belong to the Lias, as may be seen from the following 



Analysis of the Fossils of the Cephalopoda-hed of the so-called Upper Lias. 



Species. Species. 



Ammonites 15 Common to Lias 5 



Belcmnites 3 „ j> x 3 



GasterojJoda 1 ,, o » 



Lamelhbranchiata . , 21 ,, ,, ,, 



Brachiopoda 3 „ j, ,, 3 



Inferior Oolite 43 11 



Thus giving a total of forty-three species, only eleven of which are liassic, and of 

 these several extend a considerable way upwards in the oolitic series. 



The author further contended, that as much as from sixty to eighty feet below the 

 'Cephalopoda bed,' at the very base of the " Inferior Oolite sands/' a band of ferru- 

 ginous oolite had been worked by Mr. John Lycett, of Minchinhampton, which was 

 full of fossils of the Inferior Oolite forms,— a fact not adverted to by the learned Doc- 

 tor, as he was then unaware of the bed. This may be summed up as follows : — 



