202 S. R. PATTISON, F.G.S., 
The ancient Oyathophyllide were most important in size 
in Paleozoic times; but (with the exception of one doubtful 
form*) they have all become extinct. Yet, from their magni- 
tude and perfection, if descent with variation were a good 
law, it seems inconceivable that a family so strong to the last 
should have completely died out, unless by virtue of some 
other law unknown to the naturalist. 
The Carboniferous corals are also equally distinguished from 
the preceding Devonians by remarkable differences. The 
great majority of the Carboniferous genera are new.t We no 
longer encounter the feathery form of the Favositide ; hut we 
have a grand display of the almost universal Lithostrotion—a 
form which carries in its face the evidence of equality in size 
and beauty with any modern structures. 
The great rough corals of the older formations cease alto- 
gether before the opening of the Jurassic coral-beds. 
At first the Rugose corals bear the bell; next, the Tubulosa 
and Tubulata; and, during Oolitic days, the Aporosa and 
Perforata ; and, after them, in the Cretaceous, the Perforata 
and Millepores. 
It must be stated also that many species of feet bee are 
liable to a considerable amount of variation; but these do not 
render classification difficult, nor occasion any confusion of 
species, nor necessitate new names. ‘The degree of sun- 
shine, the angle of growth, the condition of the water, all 
occasion variations; but, with all allowances which can be 
made, the evolution pedigree is radically defective,—it has too 
many blanks and loose statements to be seriously brought 
forward as evidence of heirship. 
The reefs which we have been surveying proclaim that 
each platform of organic life, in regard to its antecedents, had 
a distinct separate beginning. 
The late Dr. Wright, of Cheltenham, the shrewd and inde- 
fatigable explorer of life of the Jurassic period, and the 
skilled collector of the fossils of the Cotswold Hills, writes 
the following matured conclusions from the life-history of 
corals :— 
“‘1. The genera and species of each of the great groups 
into which zoologists divide these animals have had a limited 
duration in time and space, no genera of the Paleozoic 
epoch haying been found in any subsequent epoch, and no 
new living germs haying been discovered in rocks older than 
those of the Jurassic period. 
* Dana, p. 57. + Nicholson, p. 175. 
