DESCRIPTION OF CORALS. 127 
The lower end of the slender specimen displayed not the least trace of a pedicle 
or of a cicatrice, consisting of intersections of sharp ridges. ‘The wider coral 
was worn over the whole surface, and the extremity exhibited the same amount 
of rounding as the ribs, but the union of the latter could be detected at the very 
point. Mr. Pratt’s fine specimen, before noticed, was similarly terminated. It 
is believed that this base was produced at the earliest stage of the polype’s 
existence, all signs of additional structures occurring successively upwards ; for 
in-the French example 5 lines in height, the interpolated ribs were thinnest at 
the commencement, but afterwards of persistent solidity ; and the other external 
structures had an almost perfect uniformity of character as respected strength 
from the base to the margin of the cup: moreover there were no indications of 
overlying secretions, or fillings up from without or from within; and the wall 
of the coral was also, so far as could be ascertained, imperforate. If the above 
inference be correct, it would follow that the polypidom was free from the very 
earliest period of production. 
Doubts have been expressed whether the Turbinolia dispar of M. De France 
(Dict. Sc. Nat. t. lvi. p. 93) should be specifically separated from T. sulcata, the 
distinctive characters of the former depending, according to that authority and 
M. Michelin (Icon. p. 152), on greater dimensions, more numerous striz or ribs 
and lamelle ; also in the absence of pores between the striz, as separately noticed 
by M. De France ; as well as in the axis being compressed and scarcely attaining 
the height of the margin, as additionally mentioned by M. Michelin. These cha- 
racters, without the aid of specimens, might lead to considerable doubts, the 
Bracklesham examples of T. sulcata, partly perfect at the upper extremity, being 
only 3 lines in height; Mr. Pratt’s, probably not full-grown, 5 lines ; and Gold- 
fuss’s natural-size figure, 9 lines. Mr. Pratt’s specimen again had, at the upper 
end, forty-eight ribs, the usual number being twenty-four. M. De France in de- 
scribing Turb. dispar says, ‘‘ Le nombre des stries longitudinales est quelquefois 
de plus de soixante.”’ If the additional ribs in the French Turb. sulcata were pre- 
cursors of lamella, as in earlier stages of growth, then it promised to have forty- 
eight: Turb. dispar, according to M. De France, has about forty (loc. cit.). Dimen- 
sions and numbers, therefore, are not sufficient to establish specific distinctions. 
Mr. Lyell’s cabinet, however, contains specimens of a Turbinolia from Hauteville 
(one of M. Michelin’s localities for Turb. dispar), of similar general shape to 
Turb. sulcata, but possessing many structural peculiarities. A beautifully pre- 
served example, only 2 lines in height and about 1 in diameter, had between 
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