DESCRIPTION OF CORALS. 161 
Family Escuarina. 
Eschara Brongniarti?, Milne-Edwards. (Tab. I. fig. 9, 9*.) 
Foliaceous ; cells symmetrically placed in the opposite layers, not overlaid at 
either extremity, pear-shaped, bounded by a row of foramina; surface-area 
small, nearly solid; mouth in same plane with surface, large, semi-oval, curved 
margin slightly raised, straight or proximal margin flat, slightly inclined in- 
wards ; one or two foraminated vesicles at proximal angles of mouth ; interior of 
cells nearly similar in shape to exterior ; lateral connecting foramina numerous, 
near base of wall, terminal two; dorsal surface of opposite layers not separable, 
extremely thin; walls of adjacent cells separable, glossy but uneven. 
Eschara Brongniarti, Milne-Edwards?, Annales des Sc. Nat. 2nd series, Zool. 
t. vi. pl. 11. figs. 9-9 b (1836), or Recherches sur les Polypes, Mém. sur les 
Eschares fossiles, 1838, Paris basin. 
The fossil which afforded the above characters forms part of Mr. Edwards’s 
collection, and agreed sufficiently with the figures and notice given in the 
« Annales des Sciences Naturelles’ to warrant a doubtful assignment to the Paris 
basin coral. The points of chief difference in the Bracklesham specimen were 
a much smaller surface-area, and a sharper proximal extremity ; while those of 
agreement consisted in the general form of the cell and oral aperture, the occur- 
rence of one or two foraminated vesicles at the angles of the mouth, and the 
boundary of the cells being defined by a row of foramina. 
The small specimens which were examined presented only mature conditions 
of growth, but two of them exhibited cells which differed greatly in form and 
other characters, as well as in position, from those which constituted the largest 
fragment. Both modes of growth are represented in figs. 9 a & 9* a. Tab.’ I. 
On comparing the delineation of the irregularly-grouped specimen with Eschara 
celleporacea of Count Miinster, as depictured by Prof. Goldfuss (Petref. pl. 36. 
fig. 10), a certain amount of agreement will be noticed, and if only that speci- 
men had been examined, doubts might have been entertained respecting the 
genus ; but it is believed the variations were only irregularities of local growth, 
and that the Bracklesham coral is a true Eschara, and not allied to those poly- 
pidoms which, like Count Miinster’s species, have essentially an irregular mode 
of accumulating cells in two opposite directionsf. 
+ The descriptions of the corals do not quite agree with the arrangement of the Catalogue. The 
family Tubuliporina should have been inserted before Idmonea coronopus ; but these errors are easily 
seen. 
