34 BRITISH PALAOZOIC FOSSILS. [Zoopnyta. 
Genus. STROMBODES (Scheigger) not of Lonsdale. 
= Lithostrotion (Lonsd.) = Actinocyathus (D’Orb.) Prod. p. 48. 
Gen. Char.—Corallum of numerous aggregated, inseparably united, prismatic, polygonal tubes ; triareal ; 
axis thick, prominent, of variously twisted plates; inner area of yertical radiating lamellee, connected by 
vesicular transverse plates inclining slightly upwards and outwards; outer area of vesicular plates forming 
rows of cells extending very obliquely upwards and outwards; thick solid divisional walls between the cells ; 
young forming circular buds within the parent star, in the outer area. 
This genus is defined by Schweigger (Beohachtungen auf Naturhistorischen Reisen, &c., tab. 6), as 
“ Cellule lamellosce, centro depresso, stirps e conis lamellosis in strata horizontalia conjunctis. Cellula terminalis 
cyathiformis.” And he makes two divisions, first, “‘coni e centro proliferi,” for which he refers to the Ame- 
nitates Academice of Linné, Vol. I. t. at p. 312. f. 11. and 4. (the former figure, however, shews the 
origin of a marginal bud at one point). His second group, ‘“‘coni e disco proliferi,” and the reference to 
the same plate, fig. 10 and 38, refers to a true Cyathophyllum (C. truncatum, Linn. Sp.); his first group, 
and the reference to the figures and description in the Amnitates Academicw, must be taken as the types 
of the genus, and seem fully to justify the reference by Goldfuss of his American Strombodes pentagonum 
to this genus, the more when the reference in Fougt’s description, above referred to, to fig. 18 of the 
above plate is taken into account. A coral perfectly similar to that of Goldfuss is also figured by Mr 
Dana, in Siliman’s American Journal, as an example of Strombodes. As, therefore, the notion that those 
compound, polygonal-celled corals, are the true Strombodes of Schweigger, seems to prevail extensively, and 
1 think justly, it only remains for me to add, that having carefully examined authentic specimens of the 
S. pentagonum, I find the cone-in-cone appearance of some of the figures, to be produced by a peculiarity 
of weathering, by which many of the vesicular plates towards the circumference of the stars have fallen 
out, and that the coral truly possesses all the characters so admirably elucidated by Mr Lonsdale, in the 
«Geology of Russia,” under the title of Lithostrotion—a name which it will be well now to replace by the old 
title Strombodes of Schweigger. In no case could either the words or reference of Schweigger justify the 
placing those Silurian and Devonian corals, called Strombodes by Mr Lonsdale, in this genus. 
STROMBODES WENLOCKENSIS (M/°Coy). PI. 1. B. fig. 28. 
Ref —MCoy, Ann. Nat. Hist. 2nd Series, Vol. VI. p. 274. 
Sp. Ch.—Corallum forming large irregular masses of polygonal stems, the mouths of which vary usually 
from eight to ten lines in diameter; boundary walls strong, prominent, vertically sulcated on the inside; 
stars depressed round the margin of the walls, forming a large circular convexity nearer the centre, within 
which is a concavity from which rises the thick prominent compound axis; radiating lamellze twenty-four 
in small specimens, thirty in large ones, strongest and most prominent on the circular convexity of the star, 
where an equal number of small alternate ones disappear; vertical section shews the thick central axis 
composed of irregularly twisted plates; inner area a little narrower than the outer area, from which it is 
separated by a solid vertical wall, crossed by loose vesicular structure curving upwards and outwards, one 
or rarely two vesicular plates reaching across the area on each side; vesicular plates of the outer area 
more curved, slightly smaller, the rows inclining slightly upwards and outwards scarcely three cells in a row. 
A star nine lines in diameter, has the prominent circular portion seven lines in diameter, and the prominent 
axis rather more than one line in diameter. 
To judge from the figure in the Silurian System, that marked t. 16. f. S¢ (not the 8”) of Mr Lonsdale’s 
Acervularia Baltica (Schw.) seems to belong to this species; the species represented by the latter figure 
has neither axis nor divisional walls to the stars, and is generically distinct. The true A. Baltica of 
Schweigger, according to his reference to the Amonitates Academicw, has no axis, and cannot belong 
to this genus, of which the present species is the only one I am acquainted with in Silurian strata. The 
