136 EEPOitT— 1884. 



supposed to indicate are only in a certain sense correct. The 

 older forms may, upon examination, give characters not found 

 in recent species — and vice versa. Thus Smitt (' Scandinavian 

 Bry.') gives Busk's Ahcto repens as Diastopora ibid., with the 

 following additional synonyms — Proboscinia dichotoma, D'Orb.; 

 P. Tuucasiana, D'Orb. 

 Range. — (?) 



Genus Tubulipora, Lamarck. 



Ceriopora, (pt.) Hagenow ; PhalangeUa (sp.), Gray ; Obelia (sp.), 

 Lamx. ; Reptotubigera, D'Orb. 



Zoarium adnate or decumbent or suberect, forming a variously shaped 

 expansion, either entire or lobate, or branched. Zoacia tubular, par- 

 tially free and ascending, arranged in divergent series. — Hincks, p. 443 ; 

 Busk, 'Cyclostomata,"Brit. Mus. Cat.' pi. iii.p. 24; ' Crag Poly zoa,' 110. 

 For additional synonyms, Busk, ' Cyclos,' ' B. Mus. Cat.' 



This genus I referred to briefly in my 4th Brit. Assoc. Report on 

 Fossil Polyzoa, as being one of those genera very poorly represented, 

 if at all, below the Tertiary rocks. After carefully studying some very 

 tine forms of the Tubulipora, found amongst the Crag Potyzoa, and com- 

 paring these with recent forms, I can fully endorse the remarks on the 

 <^euus made by the Rev. T. Hiucks (' Brit. Marine Polyzoa,' p. 443), 

 that the colony of Tubulipora originates in a discoid body, and that the 

 after development from this primary stage is by a ' second cell,' usually 

 beut in the opposite direction ; ' followed by an increasing number of 

 series which diverge more or less on each side. In some cases a simple 

 flabellate crust is thus formed ; in others it divides into lobes, which 

 again subdivide.' Although in some respects Tubulipora may resemble, 

 on the one hand Diastopora, and on the other Stomatopora, there is a 

 distinct facial character in the group which, under present circumstances 

 at least, keeps the genera distinct. It would be folly, however, not to 

 recognise that in the Mesozoic rocks some of the Diastopora preserve 

 the flabellate character until the colony is considerably advanced, but 

 these, instead of following the line of colonial development as found 

 in Tubulipora, ultimately assume the normal discoid habit and not the 

 branching and rebranching of typical Tubulipora. The beautiful species 

 described as Tubulipora flabeUaris, (?) Pal. (sp.) by Mr. Busk in ' Crag 

 Polyzoa," p. hi., and figured pi. xviii. tig. 3, pi. xx. fig. 9, is given by 

 Mr. Hincks as T. fimbria, Lamk. ('Brit. Mar. Polyzoa, 'p. 44S). I have 

 before me a very fine example of Busk's species figured in pi. xx. fig. 9, 

 ' Crag Polyzoa,' and I can therefore accept the strictures of Mr. Hincks, 

 when he remarks (p. 449) that T. fimbria being distinguished by its flat, 

 fan-shaped zoarium, differs from the zoarium of T. flabeUaris, in ' beinu; 

 horizontal and destitute of the very tall sub-erect extremities.' The cells 

 are not arranged in series, or at all connected together. There is, how- 

 ever, an element of doubt in identifying the Crag form with the recent 

 T. fimbria, for the reason that I have been unable to trace the ' trans- 

 versely wrinkled ' aspects referred to by Mr. Hincks. I shall not there- 

 fore differ from Mr. Hincks in his general appreciation of the types 

 accepted by him, but follow him in his identifications, in the hope that 

 further study will throw some light at least upon the doubtful points 

 referred to. 



