232 M. Le Sauvage on a new genus of Fossil Polyparia. 



in height. It was therefore easy for me to observe that it af- 

 forded very decided characters, which M. Lamouroux could not 

 observe in the fragment he possessed, and which separate it from 

 the genus Astrea. 



This singular production is formed of a considerable bundle of 

 branchy stems from 10 to 15 lines in diameter, simply contiguous, 

 and presenting to view, from one end to the other, regular series 

 of rounded dilatations and circular contractions. The branches are 

 terminated in rounded points of unequal heights, and their entire 

 surface is covered with lamellar, rounded, contiguous, and almost 

 superficial stellae. If the transverse section of one of the branches 

 be examined, it will be seen that its interior is formed of nume- 

 rous laminae, with angular spaces between them, and that they 

 affect the form of a star. The longitudinal section shows a series 

 of cavities, sometimes regularly proportioned, which seem to 

 indicate that the inside of the branches was chambered : but these 

 cavities appear to be owing, at least in a great measure, to a sort 

 of contraction, the result of a confused crystallization of the cal- 

 careous matter which entered originally into its composition. This 

 calcareous matter is of a dull-reddish colour, which forms a con- 

 trast to the whiteness of that which encrusts the mass. Consider- 

 ing the fine preservation of so prodigious a Fossil Coral, we might 

 be led to suppose that it has not undergone any displacement, 

 but that it has been enveloped in the Limestone that surrounds it, 

 in the place where it originally lived. 



The disposition of its stellae, spread over the whole exterior 

 surface, separates it from the order of the Astrew, thus charac- 

 terized by M. Lamouroux: " Etoiles ou cellules circonscrites, 

 placees a la surface superieure du Polypier." This single cir- 

 cumstance would prevent its being retained in the genus Astrea, 

 which is placed in the order of the same name, even if it were not 

 sufficiently distinguished from the species composing that genus, 

 by its disposition in fasciculated branches. Its natural position 

 is in the order of the Madrepores, thus defined : " Etoiles ," ou 

 " cellules circonscriies, rtpandues sur toutes les surfaces libres du 

 Polypier," and it should be placed at the head of this order, 

 before the genus Porites, from which it is well distinguished by 



