CLASSIFICATION. i 9 



giving rise to an axial tube in the median line of the visceral 

 cavity. There is no columella. The entire group, so far as 

 known, is confined to the Palaeozoic period. 



It is probably impossible, with our present knowledge, to 

 assign an absolutely final place to the Syringoporida in the 

 zoological series. I am quite unable to agree with the opinion 

 held by Dana, Haeckel, and Zittel, that the true place of Sy- 

 ringopora and its allies is in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the recent Tubipora ; as I can see nothing but resemblances of 

 an analogical nature between these two genera. Nor can I 

 accept the view advocated by Lindstrom (Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist, sen 4, vol. xviii. p. 14), that Syringopora is truly a Rugose 

 Coral, with relationships to Lithostrotion and Diphyphyllum. 

 Nor, again, am I at present inclined to admit that the Corals 

 usually grouped together under the generic titles of Aidopora 

 and Cladochonus ( = Pyrgia, E. and H.) are really nothing more 

 than young forms of Syringopora ; though I fully grant that the 

 immature stages of the latter may be undistinguishable from 

 the fully-grown condition of the former. On the contcary, I 

 am upon the whole disposed to think that the real relation- 

 ships of the Syringoporidce are with the Favositida, and that 

 they should therefore find a place, though a special one, in 

 the series of the Zoantharia Perforata. I regard the con- 

 necting-tubes (when present, as apparently they are not inva- 

 riably) as being the homologues of the " mural pores " of 

 the Favositidce i and the curious genus Syringolites, Hinde, 

 which I shall subsequently describe, affords an unquestion- 

 able link between these two groups. This singular type, in 

 fact, possesses the infundibuliform tabulae, and even the axial 

 tube, of certain Syringoporidce, along with the polygonal, 

 contiguous corallites, and the serially-disposed " mural pores," 

 of the Favositidce. The septa of Syringopora are furthermore 

 of the spiniform and rudimentary character so distinctive of 

 the Favositidai and there is no solid reason, so far as I am 

 aware, for regarding them as being really of the nature of the 

 "pseudo-septa" of certain Alcyonarians. 



