Reviews — R. Etheridge, Jun., Palceozoic Fossils o/JV.S. Wales. 37 



Survey, and are now in the Mining and Geological Museum at 

 Sydney, and the present work relating to the fossil Corals, by Mr. 

 E. Etheridge, jun., Paleontologist to the Survey, is intended as 

 a first instalment. 



The subdivisions of the Carboniferous rocks of New South Wales 

 are at present under revision ; according to the arrangement pro- 

 visionally adopted, the strata below the Farley Group of the Lower 

 Marine Series are considered as Carboniferous simply, whilst this 

 Lower Series and the Upper Marine Series, which are intercalated 

 ■with the productive Coal-measures, are regarded as Permo-Carbon- 

 iferous. In these rocks corals are, as a rule, scarce and poorly 

 preserved, with the exception of species of Zaphrentis and the 

 Monticuliporoid genus Stenopora. Of the former genus seven species 

 are described, three of which, Z. Culleni, Z. pJtymatodes, and Z. ? 

 sumphuens, are new forms. Some of these exhibit a remarkable 

 infilling of the calyx and thickening of the septa with sclerenchyma; 

 features which are very prominent in Plerophyllum, Hinde, but as 

 they do not show the 4 or 5 characteristic large septa of this latter 

 genus, it may be doubted whether they can rightly be included in 

 it. Other species described are LopJiophyllum corniculum, de Kon., 

 Campophyllum columnare, sp. nov., CyathopJiyllum (?) zaphrentoides, 

 sp. nov., C. retiforme, sp. nov., and Aidophyllum Davidis, sp. nov. 

 Of perforate corals a new species of Trachypora, T. Wilhinsoni, is 

 described, which, in many of its characters, resembles Striatopora ; 

 also Michelinia sp., allied to M. tenuisepta, Phillips, and Cladochonus 

 tenuicoUis, M'Coy. 



A very full and elaborate description of the minute structural 

 characters of the genus Stenopora is given, and the three species 

 described by Lonsdale, S. crinita, S. ovata, and S. Tasmaniensis, 

 are recognized, although the author is inclined to believe that 

 they do not represent separate and distinct species, but merely 

 different conditions, which seem permanent in certain circumscribed 

 areas. 



The investigations which have lately been made into the minute 

 structure of Stenopora, and other Monticuliporoids, clearly show 

 that these fossils possess a similar minute structure of their walls 

 to forms which are generally recognized as Polyzoa, and if any 

 value is to be attached to this similarity in microscopic detail, there 

 is no doubt that Stenopora, in common with the other genera of this 

 group, will no longer be able to rank as corals. Mr. Etheridge 

 does not enter into this question, but follows the views of Nicholson, 

 and of Waagen and Wentzel, that they ai-e really allied to corals. 

 In its massive mode of growth, a form like Stenopora crinita, which 

 sometimes reaches six inches in diameter, certainly approaches in 

 appearance more nearly to corals than to polyzoa ; but on closer 

 consideration this massive structure is seen to be built up of a series 

 of layers which, in certain states of preservation, as remarked by 

 Mr. Etheridge, peel off, one after another, leaving an entirely new 

 surface after each operation. In the mass, S. crinita has a wonderful 

 resemblance to the large Chcetetes radians from the Carboniferous 



