268 DESCRIPTION OF CHALK CORALS. 
Bryozoa. 
Alecto ramea, De Blainville?. (Tab. XVIIL., figs. 35t, 40, 41.) 
Ramifications irregularly divergent, nearly uniform in breadth ; visceral tubes 
bordered by a narrow tubulous band ; outline of cavity generally distinct ; aper- 
tures slightly inclined upwards, oval, uniserial, situated along the middle of the 
ramification. 
De Blainville, Man. d’Actinologie, p. 464. pl. 78. fig. 6 2. A. ramosa (?) Milne- 
Edwards, Ann. Sc. Nat. 2nde série, Zool. tome ix. pl. 16. fig. 1 ? or Recherches 
sur les Polypes, Mém. sur les Crisies, &c. pp. 15,46. Chalk of Meudon, Milne- 
Edwards ; Gravesend, Morris, Cat. British Fossils, p. 301. 
It is difficult to form an opinion respecting the corals which M. De Blainville 
has named, but not described and indifferently figured ; nevertheless M. Milne- 
Edwards has referred to Al. ramea (Rech. p. 15.) a fossil carefully delineated by him- 
self, and concerning which he has published some precise particulars. He states 
that the cells are ‘‘ en général garnies latéralement d’une petite bordure lamelleuse 
assez distincte, laquelle s’étale quelquefois beaucoup et peut réunir en une seule 
masse des branches voisines.’’ A somewhat similar lateral structure exists in the 
specimen represented by fig. 40 mag., Tab. XVIII., illustrative of these memo- 
randa; but the band, instead of constituting a horizontal plate, had an inclined 
surface ; and, when viewed with a sufficient power, as a Codrington lens, was 
clearly tubular. No similar composition is alluded to by M. Edwards, neverthe- 
less it has been thought right to adopt provisionally the designation ramea ; but 
should an actual difference be found in the side structure, the English fossil 
might be distinguished by the specific name tubulata. 
The specimen represented in part by figure 40 was attached to a Micraster 
(fig. 35 {), and did not strictly agree in mode of growth with M. DeBlainville’s figure 
or that of Prof. Milne-Edwards, being much less compactly ramose ; but it remains 
to be ascertained how far the nature of a base, and differences in the surrounding 
medium, may affect in this genus a plan of development or any other character. 
The position and range as well as the arched distal extremity of the cavities 
were well-marked by lines of a different colour from the tube itself; but in the 
older portion of the specimen they were less distinct than in the younger, in 
‘ Roemer has applied the term Azlopora ramosa (von Hagenow) to a fossil stated to occur in the 
chalk of Sussex, Rigen, Peine, and Sarstedt. Verst. Norddeutschen Kreidegebirges, p. 18. tab. 5. fig. 15, 
1840. 
