2i 4 TABULATE CORALS. 



ever we find its corallites actually in contact, there we find true 

 " mural pores " developed, of the precise type of these structures 

 in Favosites itself. Nor have I much doubt that at any points 

 in the corallum of a Syringopora at which the corallites come 

 into actual contact, openings in the wall placing the body-cavi- 

 ties of the polypes in direct communication will be found to 

 exist, though I have as yet had no opportunity of verifying this 

 conjecture. Indeed, Rominger states that such a condition of 

 parts actually does exist in Cannapora, Hall, which seems to 

 be a close ally of Syringopora. Lastly, as supporting the 

 relationship between the present genus and the Favositidce, it 

 may be pointed out that the singular funnel-shaped tabulae and 

 axial tube of Syringopora are found to exist in an almost pre- 

 cisely similar form in Syringolites, Hinde, a " Favositoid " 

 genus which possesses prismatic contiguous corallites and seri- 

 ally-placed " mural pores " of a form exactly similar to those of 

 Favosites. 



So far as is known, the genus Syringopora ranges from the 

 Silurian to the Carboniferous inclusive, but it attains its max- 

 imum in Devonian and Carboniferous strata. The species 

 which I have at present been able to examine by means of a 

 proper series of microscopic sections are S. reticulata, Goldf., 

 5". geniculata, Phill., 61 intermedia, Nich., 6". laxata, Bill., 6". 

 fascicularis, Linn., and iS 1 . bifurcata, Lonsd. ; but as I have 

 given a tolerably detailed account of the genus, it will be suffi- 

 cient to add merely very brief descriptions of the specific char- 

 acters and minute structure of the first two of these. 



