Middle Devonian Fossils, Torquay. 313 



Under these circumstances it was evident that the whole collection 

 needed revision and also that they shonld be submitted to someone 

 who was specially acquainted with the Brachiopoda, as the majority 

 of the species belong to that class. Application was accordingly 

 made to the British Museum, with the result that Mr. R. B. Newton 

 kindly undertook to examine a selection of the specimens. The 

 whole collection was then sent to me and the best specimens were 

 selected for transmission to Mr. Newton, but I retained most of 

 the corals for further investigation. 



It should here be mentioned that all the fossils are either internal 

 casts or external impressions, the actual shells and calcareous parts 

 having been dissolved and carried away by percolating water. 



Mr. Whidborne described five species of Anthozoa, but the 

 specimens on which he based three of these identifications could not 

 be found either in the Torquay Museum or in the Sedgwick Museum 

 at Cambridge, to which Mr. Whidborne's own collection was 

 presented. Two of these five species were described and figured, 

 and three were described but not figured, the latter being Hallia 

 quadripartita, Freeh, Amplextis sp., and Metriophylltim Elsii (new 

 species, which should be written M. EUei). 



Sallia quadripartita was described from two specimens, one from 

 this locality and a better one from "near Walls Hill". Neither of 

 these specimens can now be found. Erech described this as a new 

 species, but Schliiter afterwards identified it as only a variety of his 

 Aulacophyllum looghiense, and I think it safer to adopt his opinion.^ 



The second species was identified as belonging to the genus 

 Amplexus, from a single distorted cast of the cup, which was about 

 25 mm. deep by 25 mm. in width with twenty-eight major septa. 

 This specimen cannot now be found. 



Metriophyllum Elsei is stated to be the commonest coral in these 

 slates, and there are some thirteen specimens which resemble one 

 another and may belong to the genus Metriophyllum, but they are 

 merely casts and most of them are crushed. The number of major 

 septa seems to be from eighteen to twenty and not uniformly sixteen 

 as stated by Mr. Whidborne ; they are twisted as they approach 

 the centre, but it is difficult to say whether they formed a pseudo- 

 columella. Dr. Vaughan, who has seen them, thinks Mr. Whidborne 

 must have had before him a better specimen than any of those now 

 in the Museum, which are not sufficiently good for even generic 

 identification. 



Besides the corals above mentioned there are four casts among those 

 in the Museum which clearly belong to a different genus. They have 

 the general aspect of Petraia or Streptelasma and have a strong 

 resemblance to the small Devonian corals which Schliiter has 

 referred to the genus Buncanella of Nicholson.- In fact, they maybe 

 casts of the two species described by him under the names of 

 Duncanella major and D. pyymcea on pp. 16, 17 of the Avork above 



^ " Anthozoen des rhein. Mittel-Devon " : Hcrausg. Kon. Preuss. geol. 

 Lancles, 1889, p. 32. 



- " Anthozoen des ibein. Mittel-Devon " : Herausg. Kon. Preuss. geol. 

 Landes, 1889. 



