302 Dr. F. Briiggemann on Stony Corals. 



no matter; and it is dissimilar enough to Scoh/mus (a genus 

 of 3Iollusca) to jn'event confusion. Tlie family will be more 

 appropriately termed Mussacece, from its principal gennsMussa, 

 which is, moreover, of earlier date than either Scolymia or 

 LithojjTojlUa. 



I cannot concur in Count de Pourtal^s's opinion (Deep- 

 Sea Corals, p. 70) that the species of LithopliyUia will turn 

 out to be younger stages of other corals — a suggestion already 

 indicated by Esper, who united the Sc. lacera with a species of 

 Mussa. Sc. duhia is indeed dubious in this respect ; but as 

 to Sc. lacera, cuhensts, and lacrymalis, these are certainly 

 permanent solitary forms. Some other species ought to be 

 excluded from this genus, viz. : — 



1. LitliophyUia radians , Duchassaing and Michelotti, Mem. 

 Accad. Tor. (2) xxiii. p. 171, pi. vii. figs. 3, 4. According 

 to the description and figure, the coral is much elevate, the 

 septa are moderately dentate ; the columella is very small, 

 almost rudimentary. As these characters do not occur in the 

 true Scolymice, the species in question may perhaps belong to 

 anotlier genus ; but it seems to be established on a single spe- 

 cimen only, 



2. LithophylUa cylindrica, Duch. & Mich. op. cit. xix. 

 p. 344, pi. ix. figs. 17, 18. The magnified figure shows 

 the coral covered with a well-defined epitheca, the septa 

 much exsert, rounded, their edges with small subequal teeth. 

 I am inclined to consider this an early stage of an Antillia ; 

 it bears a general resemblance to a coral from Borneo 

 which I shall proceed to describe as the young of Antillia 

 constrtcta. 



3. Lithojjhyllia midtilamella, Duch. & Mich. o^j. cit. xxiii. 

 p. 171, pi. viii. fig. 12. Most probably Pourtales was correct 

 in pronouncing this the young of an Isophyllia. It is, how- 

 ever, not identical with the Isophyllia multilamella of Pour- 

 tales (Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool. iv. p. 70) ; for Duchassaing and 

 Michelotti state, "les lamelles sont eloignees d'un millimetre," 

 while Pourtales's Isophyllia has from thirteen to fifteen septa 

 in the space of a centimetre. 



4. Caryophyllia ausfralis, M.-Edw. & Haime, Ann. Sc. 

 Nat. (3) xi. p. 239. The French authors have at first, with 

 some hesitation, included .this coral in the present genus ; 

 afterwards (Polyp. Foss. Terr. Paleoz. p. 87) they refer it 

 to Isophyllia. As it differs materially from both these genera, 

 I have made it the tyjie of a new one. 



The s])ecies of Scolymia known to me may be thus cha- 

 racterized : — 



