68 Mr. II. J. Carter on the close Relationship of 



from Prof. King, of Galway, and Mr, Sollas, too, that some of 

 these spechnens at kwst preseiiteil a rcticnLated structure, it 

 struck me that they might Ije alhed to Parkcria. 



Under tliis impression, I paid a visit to my friend Mr. Vicary, 

 of Exeter, in whose beautiful collection (the more beautiful, too, 

 because it has been made subservient to researches in geology 

 and paleontology) I knew there were several specimens of 

 Stromatopora from the Devonian Limestone, especially a large 

 conical one, about 6 inches by 4 in its greatest diameters, in 

 dark, almost black, limestone, with a bossed surface not unlike 

 the bossed form of Parkcria to which I have before alluded. 



Having found my friend, as usual, only too anxious to place 

 every thing in this Avay at my disposal, I examined this speci- 

 men, as M^ell as another of the same kind, which, although 

 imperfect, had retained a portion of the bossed surface from 

 which a polished section had been made imonrds vertically^ so 

 as to show the structure of the Stromatopora m this direction, — 

 when I became impressed with the resemblance of the wavy 

 character of the concentric lines to that oiParheria nodosa^ and, 

 on turning to the surface itself, found this granulated also like 

 that of I\irl-eria, arising from the Aveathering out of the inter- 

 stitial matter of the same kind of tissue-fibre. Moreover, on 

 the summit of each of the bosses just mentioned is a stelli- 

 form lineation, whose arms descending in a branched, radiating, 

 subdcndritic form, meet in their ultimate divisions those of the 

 neighbouring stellates ; while over the whole surface, bosses 

 and all indiscriminately, are iiTCgularly scattered small pa- 

 pilliform elevations about l-96th inch in diameter, but of va- 

 riable sizes and at variable distances from each other (fig. 19, 

 aa^ hh). The stellate lines, together with a similar papilliform 

 eminence in the centre, about l-48th inch in diameter, and 

 the papilliform eminences throughout, are chiefly made up of 

 transparent calcspar, which contrasts strongly from its homo- 

 geneity with the surrounding tissue-fibre, indicating that ori- 

 ginally all these parts were holloic ; besides this, the more 

 superficial lines of tlie stellate are rendered more evident by 

 being slightly raised above the general surface ; so that they are 

 not grooves like the stellate lines of Bradya tergestina. The 

 stelliform systems, which are a well-known feature of Stroma- 

 toporaj have already been foreshadowed in the description of 

 Bradya tergestina, and perhaps, as has before been stated, in 

 a rudimentary form in Loftusia pe.rsica, if not also in the sub- 

 radiating lines on the eminences of the surface of Parkeria 

 sphoerica and, through the plane projection, of the large spine 

 oi Hydr actinia echinata^ as before mentioned (p. 48). 



But be this as it may, it appears here, as vrell as in Bradya 



