AUSTRO-HUNGAEIAN GONIOPORiE. 123 



crowded, polygonal, walls slightly raised, sharp, ragged, and echinulate. Septa very perforate 

 and also with ragged edges. A wart-like central columella. The vertical section shows a 

 reticulum consisting of diverging trabecule with rows of interveningjineshes. 



The figures which illustrate this description (of a group) are fortunately those of a 

 specimen from a definite locality, Potzleindorf, and we have therefore to deal with this alone. 

 Eeuss' identification of it with a number of other Poritids not only from within or bordering 

 on the Vienna Basin, but even with one from Turin, is no longer of any help to us. 



In 1871, under the influence of the works of Milne-Edwards and Haime, he proposed to 

 make this a synonym of the Astrcea incrustans of Defrance, on which see the observations 

 on p. 117. 



The simple facts are that we have a description and a figure of a Poritid from Potzleindorf 

 in the Tegel-sand. We gather that tins is a Goniopora from the fact that the freely fusing 

 septa frequently fork near the walls ; on the significance of the forking septa see Introduction, 

 p. 21. 



The other localities in Austro-Hungary from which Reuss records the remains of Poritids 

 which he believed to be of the same species are, — Rudelsdorf near Landskron in Piohemia, in 

 the Tegel ; Enzesfeld, Lower Austria, in the Leithakalk ; Mattersdorf in Hungary ; and at 

 Kostel in Moravia. A re-examination of these Poritids is a desideratum. 



110. Goniopora Vienna Basin (4)2. 

 [Waschberge near Stockerau (Miocene [Tortonian]) ; Vienna Museum.] 

 Pontes leiophylla, Reuss, Naturwiss. Abh. von Haidinger, ii. (1848) p. 28, pi. v. fig. 4, a, b. 



Description. — Corallum with smooth, convex upper surface, from 2 ■ 5-5 cm. across. 



The calicles quite irregular and flowing together, without raised walls, judging from the 

 exposed surface which may have suffered from post-mortem corrosion ; wherever the walls form 

 a network it is very large meshed and irregular. 



The septa, 15 to 20 in number, are thick (thicker in proportion than in the original figure 

 4 6), but unequal both in thickness and length, smooth, wavy, and fusing irregularly. The 

 interseptal loculi are very irregular in shape and size owing to the fusions and to the occasional 

 presence of synapticulse. Hardly any septa end freely, but all meet a small columellar tangle, 

 which may be merely a ring consisting of a smooth, nodulated, rather thick thread. 



As there are usually from 15-20 septa this coral must be regarded as a Goniopora. It is a 

 very interesting form, for it not only shows a tendency of the skeleton to melt down into 

 a fluent reticulum, but the fusions of the septa at varying distances from the wall leave no 

 doubt but that the forking abutment of septa close against the wall really represents two septa 

 fused together. Cf. Introduction, p. 21, on the origin of Pontes from Goniopora. 



In 1859, Dr. Abich* referred some Poritids found in the valley of the Araxes to 

 " Litharcca leiophylla of Reuss," and described a rich collection of Poritids from the islands in 



* Mem. Ac. Imp. Sci. St. Petersburg, ix. pt. 1 (1859) ; see pp. 76 and 101. 



R 2 



