266 DESCRIPTION OF CHALK CORALS. 
placed the genus between Cellepora and Eschara. Mr. Dana’, on the contrary, 
alludes to Spinopora ‘in his Appendix to Madreporacea, stating however that 
the connection with the tribe is uncertain. From the occurrence of transverse 
laminze in the abdominal tubes of the English fossil, the true general position is 
nevertheless believed to be in the class Anthozoa, and the nearest more definite 
approximation to be with such Millepore of Lamarck as have been grouped 
by M. De Blainville under the term Palmipora (op. cit. p. 391). Those corals 
are associated by MM. De Blainville (op. cit. pp. 382, 391), Milne-Edwards 
(Lamk.t. ii. p. 307), and Dana (Zoophy. p. 544, &c.), in the same great assemblage 
as Madrepora; but it is impossible to conjecture what number of tentacula the 
fossil polype possessed, not a trace of lamellae or of what are commonly re- 
garded equivalent structures having been detected. Notwithstanding the best 
provisional allocation appears to be near Palmipora or a similar restriction of 
Lamarck’s Millepora. 
Three specimens of the coral were examined. One (fig. 38, nat. size) consisted 
of a broad, slightly convex mass with the base of a branch projecting from it ; 
the others were ramose, the larger (fig. 39, nat. size) having partly incrusted a 
cylindrical body ; and the smaller was composed of a detached group of slender 
branches, the extreme height and breadth of the specimen being about an inch, 
and the greatest width of the branches 1; line. 
In the expanded specimen (fig. 38) the increase of the coral, independent of 
augmentations within the area of previously formed portions, was effected by 
extensions around the whole margin of the disk ; and in the ramose examples by 
additions to the upper extremity of the branch. 
The apertures to the abdominal cavities or tubes were not raised above the 
general surface and scarcely perceptible to the unassisted eye, but they were very 
numerous, and principally close together, forming the meshes of a fine network. 
In this respect there was a marked difference from Palmore. Immediately 
adjacent to the small spinous processes, they had (fig. 39 6) a circular arrangement 
resembling the petals of a flower; a similar distribution is visible in Goldfuss’s 
figure 13 b (tab. 30) of Spin. mitra, and apparently alluded to in his description 
of the species (p. 39) ; elsewhere the pores had no definite position. Their out- 
line varied, but with a tendency to a round contour; and their boundary was for 
the greater part ill-defined ; though occasionally an opaque line surrounded the 
tube both on the surface, and in the centre of transversely fractured branches. 
 Zoophytes, pp. 570, 572. 
