198 Dr. G. J. Hinde — Western Australian Fossils. 



Genus Syringopoka, Goldfuss. 



Syringopora reticulata, Goldfuss, var. patula, var. nov. PI. VIII. 



Fig. 4. 

 1826-33. Syringopora reticulata, Goldfuss, Petref. Germ. vol. i. p. 76, pi. xxv. fig. 8. 

 1852. Syringopora reticulata, Edwards and Haime, Brit. Foss. Corals, p. Ib2, 



pi. xlvi. figs. 1, la. 

 1872. Syringopora reticulata, De Koninck, Nouv. Recti, sur. les Anim. foss. pt. i. 



' p. 123, pi. xi. figs. 7, lb. 

 1879. Syringopora reticulata, Nicholson, Tabulate Corals, p. 215, fig. 30; and 



pi. x. fig. 5. 

 1880-1. Syringopora reticulata, Nich., Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, p. 225, fig. 3. 



Corallum forming low bushy masses of cylindrical, flexuous 

 radiating corallites, rangiug in diameter from 1*6 to 2'15 mm. The 

 largest specimen examined is 50 mm. in height by 110 mm. wide. 

 The distance between the corallites varies from '5 to 2 mm. ; they 

 are connected at irregular intervals, more by the interosculation of 

 proximate corallites than by horizontal processes between them. 

 The corallites also increase by frequent lateral buds given off from 

 the stems, the young stems having the same general direction of 

 growth as the parents. 



The corallites have thick uniform walls about -25 mm. in thickness ; 

 the septal spines appear to be irregularly developed, and reduced to 

 small conical projections from the inner surface of the wall; in some 

 transverse sections not more than three or four are visible, whilst in 

 others there are five or six in about one-fourth the circumference of 

 the corallite. The infundibuliform tabular are of the usual character, 

 and there is no special infilling of sclerenchyma within the corallites. 



I have ventured to place these specimens as a variety of S. reticulata, 

 since, though the corallites are of about the same dimensions, they 

 appear to increase more rapidly by lateral budding, and thus to 

 diverge more in their mode of growth, and the connecting processes 

 between them, if not altogether absent, are so reduced as to be 

 scarcely distinguishable. The specimens are now imbedded in 

 nodular masses of compact limestone, and their minute structural 

 characters are very clearly shown in thin sections. The corallite 

 walls consist, as pointed out by Prof. H. A. Nicholson (Proc. Poy. 

 Soc. Edinburgh, 1880-1, p. 225), of two layers, an exterior, which 

 is formed of compact sclerenchyma either granular or radiately 

 fibrous, and an inner layer of concentrically arranged wavy fibres, 

 which are interlaced together. In these Australian forms the exterior 

 layer of the walls is of the same tint as the inner, and can scarcely 

 be distinguished from it. It appears, however, to be present, and 

 can be recognized in transverse sections as a thin outer zone of a 

 granular character, whilst the inner layer is markedly of wavy 

 fibres ; there is, however, no definite line between the two layers. 

 It is worthy of note that this wall-layer of wavy interlacing fibres 

 seems to be very characteristic of Syringopora and its allies. In 

 S. Maclurei, Billings, from the Devonian of Canada, the walls, which 

 are very thick, appear to be wholly of this wavy structure, whilst 

 in Boemeria minor, Schliiter, from the Devonian of the Eifel, there 

 is a well-marked exterior layer of radiating fibres, within which is 



