402 Dr. R. Schifer—On Phillipsastrea, a’ Orb. ; 
whilst those in Sarcinula Phillipsi are cone-shaped and bent upwards, 
he is perfectly correct. To this question I shall recur later on, but 
I would here remark that no distinction of species can be based on 
this difference of tabule, since the two species are connected by 
individuals showing numerous intermediate gradations. 
Arrangement of the septa.—As already mentioned two or more 
opposite septa in each calyx meet and form a kind. of ridge, which 
other septa join. In this way are produced configurations in the 
calicular fossa, which, it must be admitted, sometimes closely 
resemble a columella. This resemblance however is merely super- 
ficial; closer observation with the lens shows that the septa only 
meet. On p. 403, Figs. 1-8 I give enlarged figures of the middle 
parts of some corallites from one of the type specimens of Phillips- 
astrea radiata, HK. & H. (type of Sarcinula Phiilipsi, M‘Coy), which 
I was able to prepare at the Museum in Cambridge. The type 
specimen of M‘Coy’s Sarcinula placenta does not show on the surface 
that septa join inside the calicular fossa; but this I believe is only 
owing to the imperfect state of preservation. There are however 
in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), as also in the Cambridge 
Museum, other specimens, some of which do actually show configu- 
rations which appear to be columelle. But this is not always the 
case, as I have already pointed out, and neither the figure given by 
Phillips,’ nor that given by M‘Coy,” to which Edwards and Haime 
refer in their description of the species, nor that which they them- 
selves give,? shows a columella. Thomson’s fig. 1, pl. iv. shows 
only in one single corallite a junction of four septa. The question, 
however, whether Phillipsastrea radiata has or has not a true 
columella can only be decided by sections. The only three sections, 
which have hitherto been figured * show nothing conclusive. New 
sections were prepared. It was impossible to make sections of the — 
typical specimens in the Museum at Cambridge without destroying 
those parts figured by M‘Coy. Accordingly, sections of unfigured 
specimens in the British Museum and in my own collection were 
prepared. ‘The said specimens exactly corresponded in all essential 
characteristics with the type specimens. In consequence of this 
I was able to examine four horizontal and six vertical sections of 
four different specimens which were found in the Carboniferous 
Limestone at Haford-y-Calch near Corwen, North Wales, and in the 
Avon section, near Bristol. 
In horizontal section the calices show the same phenomenon as is 
sometimes observed, although not so clearly, on the surface of the 
corallum. I was not able to identify in the specimens before me 
that bilaterally-symmetrical arrangement of the septa, which ac- 
cording to Kunth’s researches forms so distinctive a characteristic of 
1 J. Phillips, Paleozoic Fossils of Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset, pl. vii. 
fig. 15p, London, 1841. 
2 M‘Coy, Brit. Pal. Foss. pl. iii.n, figs. 9, 9a, 94. 
3 Milne Edwards and J. Haime, Brit. Foss. Cor. pl. 37, fig. 2. 
4 M‘Coy, Brit. Pal. Foss. pl. 38, figs. 9¢, 94.—M. Edwards and J, Haime, Brit. 
Foss. Cor. pl. 37, fig. 22.—J. Thomson, loc. cit. pl. iv. figs. 1, la, 
