NEW ZEALAND FOSSIL CORALS. 



fPrincipally from Tertiary formations.) 



Order — Alcyonaria. Family — Gorgoxid;e. Sub-family — 

 IsiDiNiE. Genus — Isis. Linne. 



Corallum composed of calcareous articulations^ united by 

 discs of elastic corneous tissue. This geuus has only living- 

 representatives in tropical seas^ India, the Pacific, and America. 

 The fossil species are very few — Tertiary and Secondary for 

 Europe ; but there are at least two from the Australian Tertiary 

 formations, one from the Mount Grambier bryozoan beds being 

 very common. See Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 31, p. 673, pi. 38. 



Isis dactyla, n. s. Two calcareous articulations of this coral 

 show it to differ to some extent from any described species. 

 They are long and compressed, so as to give an oblong trans- 

 verse section. The ends are dilated into an acute projecting 

 edge. The condyles are convex or sub-conical, concentrically 

 striate. The sides are finely and rather faintly grooved in 

 parallel lines. Long. 35, lat. 10, lat. of condyle 12 millim. 

 Hutchison's Quarry, Oamaru ; Formation V. Appendix Official 

 Cat., No. 1, p. 35. This fossil, judging from the figures, is very 

 near the Isis melitensis of Goldfuss. Petrefac. Germanise, pi. 7, 

 fig. 17; also Pictet, 2nd edit., pi. 108, fig. 12. The resemblance 

 is very close, as the form for Isis is exceptional. The European 

 fossil is foiind in the Pliocene of Sicily, at Lipari, and in Pied- 

 mont. Fig. 1. 



Other articulations of a smaller kind of coral are found in 

 the collection (No. 11, Appendix Off. Cat.) from the same 

 quarry. The specimens are smaller and the grooves larger. 

 They may, however, belong to some other genus of Gorrjonicla. 



Sub-order — Zoantharia sclerodermata. Section — Madrepo- 

 RAKiA aporosa. Family — Turbinolid^. Sub-family — Caryo- 



PHYLLlNiE. Second group TROCHOCYATHACEyE. GcUUS 



Trochocyathus. M.-Ed. and Haime. 



Corallum simple, pedicellate, or free with traces of adherence. 

 Pali before all the cycles except the last. Columella well de- 

 veloped. Epitheca, if present, only rudimentary. 



