Cretaceous Species of Podoseris, Dune. 29 
unfortunately more or less worn and weathered. Specimens 
in a similar condition have passed through my hands since 
1869, and there are some in the British Museum. Amongst 
the collection now under consideration there are probably a 
hundred specimens of various stages of growth and of decay, 
whilst a few present structures which, from their ready 
destruction under weathering, were not preserved in the speci- 
mens formerly examined. 
The new specimens indicate that the ornamentation and 
shape of the septa, their number, their relation to a septal 
fossula, and the size and height of the corals vary, and that 
the true characters of the calices cannot be appreciated by the 
examination of weathered specimens. It is interesting to 
notice that in the specimens which were examined and 
described in 1869 there was a great amount of variation in 
their height and in the convexity of the calices. No satis- 
factory examples of the tall varieties with convex calices are 
amongst the new series. Most of the specimens are low, 
broad, slightly convex, with a massive-looking columella and 
numerous large uniting septa and synapticule. The usual 
cyclical number of the septa is incomplete five, but there are 
some specimens with five cycles complete, and in one very 
broad specimen there are some septa of the sixth cycle present. 
The following is a description of what may now be con- 
sidered to be a typical form :— 
Corallum simple, attached, with a circular base, from which 
it rises very slightly and more or less vertically to the edge 
of the moderately convex calice, which has a distinct central 
fossula with the columella at its base. Broader than high, 
12 millim. in diameter and 5°5 millim. in height. 
Septa mostly long and stout, passing far inwards, man 
reaching, after uniting with others, the edge of the fossula 
and uniting at its base to form, with some slight interseptal 
structure, the columella; all more or less arched where free 
and carrying a single line of large distinct granules, which 
are especially large and distinct around the fossula and upon 
the columella ; or the position once occupied by granules may 
be occupied by pits. ‘The number of the septa is variable in 
the six systems; there is either a deficiency or a redundancy 
of large septa and the number of rudimentary small septa 
varies greatly ; still the complete fifth cycle is rarely reached 
in spite of there being some very remarkable long and very 
slender and almost linear septa close to some of the largest. 
There is union of septa either near the fossula or near to the 
ealicular margin. Septa swollen in regular series, their 
swellings interdigitate, oblique ridges upon the sides of the 
