Miscellaneous. 225 



Notice of a remarl-abU new Genus of Corals, probably typical of a 

 new Family. By F. B. Meek. 



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 extraordinary and interesting combination of characters that it 

 is thought desirable to call attention to it heref. 



The specimens of this fossil contained in the collection are slender, 

 slightly flexuous, arched or nearly straight, and sub cylindrical, 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 costoe) 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 foi'm, 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, exactly like the septa in the 

 foraminiferous 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. 



t Figm-es 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. 



