170 TABULATE CORALS. 



of surprise to find that Milne-Edwards and Haime at first 

 accept the genus in part (Brit. Foss. Cor. Intr., p. Ixi, 1850), 

 with the clearly insufficient definition that the corallum is 

 " very similar to Chatetes" but has " small styliform pro- 

 cesses at the angles of the calices ; " and then immediately 

 afterwards (Pol. Foss. des Terr. Pal., p. 261, 1851) merge 

 the genus with Chcetetes, Fischer. 



Mr Lonsdale's definition of Stenopora was founded (as also 

 Professor Dana's) upon specimens derived from Australia and 

 Van Diemen's Land ; and, so far as known, all the examples 

 in the hands of these observers were of Devonian or Carboni- 

 ferous age. At this point, however, the history of the genus 

 which need not here be followed out in detail became compli- 

 cated by the reference to it by Professor M'Coy of a number 

 of Silurian Corals (Brit. Pal. Foss., p. 24, 1851). The defini- 

 tion of Stenopora given by M'Coy is as follows : 



" Polypidom polymorphous, composed of round or polygonal 

 tubes radiating from an imaginary axis to the surface, where 

 the bounding ridges are tuberculated ; young tubes interpolated 

 by lateral budding between the old ; tubes constricted at irreg- 

 ular distances in planes parallel with the surface, and partially 

 closed at the orifice by a concave diaphragm perforated in the 

 centre ; no connecting tubuli, nor foramina." 



The only species unhesitatingly referred to the genus by 

 M'Coy is one which he identifies specifically with the Calamo- 

 pora fibrosa of Goldfuss (Petref. Germ., PI. XXVIII., figs. 3 a, 

 3 b, 1829). The examples upon which Goldfuss founded this 

 species were derived from North America ; and as I have not 

 had the opportunity of examining the originals, I can only 

 say that the figures of the German palaeontologist would pass 

 very well as figures of such a species of Stenopora as S. ovata, 

 Lonsd. Calamopora fibrosa, Goldf., was, however, subsequently 

 referred by Milne-Edwards and Haime to Favosites, under the 

 name of F. fibrosa (Pol. Foss. des Terr. Pal., p. 244), and the 

 species was stated to occur in the Lower and Upper Silurian, 

 and also in the Devonian, in Britain, Europe, and North 



