150 DESCRIPTION OF CORALS. 
plates also occasionally issued from the walls, and were quite distinct from those 
belonging to the downward range of the cones. The fully-produced lamelle 
were very thin, even at their junction with the wall; and they were often bent 
in their range towards the centre. On the sides of the terminal cup they were 
generally narrow, and in the best-preserved instances jagged on the edge; but 
near the base they expanded with a concave outline, and after uniting with the 
axis they ranged upwards and formed the projection occasionally visible on the 
side of that structure. 
The interior of the terminal cup did not present any indication of an inner 
distinct lining, but a few bladder-like plates were observed in one of M. Miche- 
lin’s French specimens. The walls as well as the sides of the lamelle were 
studded with minute points. 
The axis was very small, and often, when broken, only a simple union of 
lamella was exhibited without any marked central thickening. In the more 
nearly perfect state, it formed a compressed, apparently solid style, traversed by 
narrow plates or projecting points, the rudiments of future extensions of lamell. 
The conical mounds did not form a marked feature, being almost inconspi- 
cuous to the unassisted eye; but in the specimens examined by M. De France, 
they had ‘‘ quelquefois 4—5 lignes (French) de longueur.” (op. cit. p. 386.) The 
greatest observed downward range of a cone, within the body of the Bracklesham 
coral, was about 3 lines, and the greatest extension above the least abraded sur- 
face was 1 line. The mounds were generally situated at the angles, but in 
many cases they appeared to have sprung from a side or even from another angle, 
as they often crossed obliquely the intervening wall (fig. 25 a); and the project- 
ing portion had also sometimes a slight inclination. In a very few cases, a more 
or less perfect cone was situated at each angle ; but the majority of the stars 
had two, frequently difficult to detect, and some only one. The exact number 
of lamellee-plates or ridges could rarely be determined ; in some instances, how- 
ever, it exceeded seven. The thickness of the plates far surpassed that of the 
true lameilz, and the edges were rounded and smooth, or papillated. In their 
downward course within the terminal cup, these ridges could readily be distin- 
guished by the characters just noticed, as well as by their occasional oblique 
direction ; and when they had this range, the true lamella were farther easily 
discerned by their thin laminz crossing vertically the diagonal ridges: in a few 
cases, where the position of the two structures coincided, the lamellz formed a 
fine edge on the broad margin of the plate belonging to the cone. The mounds 
