Miscellaneous. papas: 
Notice of a remarkable new Genus of Corals, probably typical of 
| new Family. By F, B. Mzex. 
Among some fossils sent on for investigation by Professor Whitney, 
the State Geologist of California, from the Silurian rocks of Nevada*, 
there are a few specimens of a new genus of corals presenting such 
an extravrdinary and interesting combination of characters that it 
is thought desirable to call attention to it here*. 
The specimens of this fossil contained in the collection are slender, 
slightly flexuous, arched or nearly straight, and subcylindrical, ex- 
cepting near the lower end, where they taper to a point, by which 
they were probably attached. They may have grown in tufts or 
groups; but all the specimens yet seen are single, and show no evi- 
dences of growing in contact. 
To the unassisted eye, the external surface of these corallites 
(with the exception of obscure annular swellings and constrictions 
of growth and faintly marked linear septal costs) seem to be nearly 
or quite smooth. When examined under a strong lens, however, it 
is seen to be beautifully punctate—the punctures being minute, of 
exactly uniform size, and arranged with mathematical regularity in 
-quincunx, and so closely crowded that the little divisions between 
them are scarcely equal in breadth to the punctures themselves, 
and form, as it were, an extremely delicate kind of network. So 
remarkable is the appearance of this punctured outer wall, that the 
first question that suggests itself, on examining it under a magni- 
fier, is, whether or not it may be merely an exceedingly delicate 
Polyzoon encrusting the whole surface. A clear examination, how- 
ever (especially in carefully prepared transverse sections), shows 
that the punctures actually pass entirely through the wall, which 
is very thin, and that they are not due to the growth of a Polyzoon, 
nor to surface-ornamentation. : 
On grinding away this very thin punctured wall, the septa are 
seen immediately within to be stout, equal, straight, and very equi- 
distant ; but on grinding a little further in, they are observed to 
become very regularly waved laterally, exvactly like the septa in the 
foramimuferous genus Fusulina. So striking is this resemblance, 
that it was not until after ascertaining from cross section that the 
fossil has not an involuted structure, that I could get rid of the 
suspicion that it might be a new type of Foraminifera allied to Fu- 
sulina, instead of an extraordinary coral. 
By grinding still further in (to a depth of about 0-06 inch, in a 
specimen 0-34 inch in diameter), the lateral waving of the septa 
already mentioned is seen to be there suddenly and so strongly 
marked, that they connect laterally, in such a manner as to form a 
* A notice of the discovery of Silurian rocks at this distant western 
locality has already been published by Prof. Whitney in the Proceedings 
of the Californian Academy of Sciences. 
+ Figures and descriptions of this and the other Silurian fossils from 
this locality will be given in the second volume of Prof. Whitney’s report 
on the geology of California. 
