CORALS AND BRYOZOA. 9 



thickj letting the costa appear on the edge of the calice only 

 where they correspond with the scpta^ and are not granular. 

 Calice very slightly oval^ of medium depth. Septa but little 

 exsert, in five systems of four regular cycles, all complete, the 

 various orders being easily distinguished by their relative sizes. 

 Largely granulated in curved lines. Pali before all the orders 

 except the fourth and fifth. Columella confined to a few vitilia. 

 Alt. 14, major axis 8, minor 9 millim. App. Off. Cat., p. 37, 

 No. 37 bis. Shakespeare Cliff, Wanganui ; III. 



This peculiar form differs from every fossil coral in the Aus- 

 tralian tertiaries. In shape it recalls some of the mesozoic 

 Paracyathi. It has no known living representative in the 

 southern seas, and it remains to be seen whether the abortion of 

 one system is constant. 



New Genus — Notocyathus. 



Corallum free, rarely pedicellate, no columella, younger 

 orders of septa uniting in front of secondaries and tertiaries, 

 from whence spring pali. Secondary and primary septa uniting 

 in the centre. No epitheca. Costa prominent, moniliform. 



A few remarks on this genus may be necessar}^ here. In 

 1865 Professor Duncan figured and described a fossil coral from 

 the Australian tertiaries, which he named Caryophyllia viola. 

 The specimens from which his figures and descriptions were 

 taken had been sent to him by me. In 1876 I obtained a large 

 number of much better specimens, from Avhich I found that the 

 fossil Avas certainly not a Caryophyllia, and that its relations 

 were rather to Conocyathvs or Deltocyat/ius — to Conocyathus by 

 the union of the septa in the centre, and to Deltocyathus by the 

 peculiar chevron-like forms in which the septa unite, and from 

 which the pali spring. This peculiarity it also shares with 

 some of the genus Twbinolia and Conocyathus. But Deltocyathus 

 and Conocyathus arc both peculiar and characteristic genera, 

 from which all the Australian fossil corals with the features I 

 have named differ in important particulars. Under these cir- 

 cumstances a new genus with the diagnosis as above becomes 

 necessary, and it will be the more useful in arranging the corals 

 of our Tertiary formations, as the species are confined appa- 

 rently to them. It will involve some changes, as I will note in 

 the proper place. 



Notocyathus pedicellatus. Corallum short, pedicellate, 

 2 



