Duncan— Miocene Beds of Antigua and Malta. 101 
tilles ;* and the Mid-tertiaries rest either on Lower Cretaceous 
strata or on mica-schist and intrusive rocks. But if the serial 
relation does not prove the correspondence of age, the numerical 
method and the community of characteristic fossils certainly do. 
The general correlation, then, of the West Indian and Euro- 
pean Mid-tertiary strata can be asserted; but from the presence 
of a domimant species of Coral im the Antiguan Chert, the same 
being dominant in the lowest of the Maltese limestones, ‘the 
approximate contemporaneity of the distant formations is rea- 
sonably inferred. Professor Rupert Jones has come to this 
conclusion, irrespectively of any reference to the corals.t 
Stylocenia lobato-rotundate.— The commonest coral of the 
Antiguan Chert is Stylocenia lobato-rotundata, described by 
Michelin as Astrea lobato-rotundata ;{ but its generic name was 
changed by MM. Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime.§ It grows 
in large masses, the corallites being agglomerated, so as to 
deserve the specific name; and it is often very curiously fos- 
silized. It is of course unwise to rely upon negative evidence, 
but the species has not as yet been found in the Marl above 
the Chert; neither has it been found in any of the San Domin- 
gan Tertiaries. 
In some recent investigations amongst the corals from the 
Maltese limestones, I found specimens of this very wel! marked 
species in nearly every piece of the lowest calcareous forma- 
tion that Dr. Leith Adams sent me. It has not been found, 
as yet, in the strata above. Its growth and habit resemble 
those of the Antiguan form; and it certainly characterizes the 
bed ‘ No. 5’ of Dr. Adams. | 
The species is not restricted in Europe to Malta, for it has 
been found in the Turin Miocene at Verona and at Dego. 
In the Maltese limestone it is associated with Dendrophyllia 
trregularis, Blainyille, sp., a well-known form of the Dax 
Miocene beds; and in the Antiguan Chert it is found with 
Astrocenia ornata, Michelotti, sp., which is a species almost 
characteristic of the Mid-tertiaries of Turin. The relation 
between the Antiguan Marl and the calcareous beds above the 
lowest in Malta is not yet determined. 
It is impossible to deny the enormous area of the Miocene 
coral-sea after the discovery of species common to such remote 
* Barrett, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xvi. p. 324. 
{+ See Prof. Jones’ communication on the Orbitoides of Antigua and Malta, p. 102. 
+ Michelin, Icon. Zooph., p. 62, pl. 13, fig. 2. 1842. 
§ Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime, Ann. Science. Nat., 8rd series, vol. x. 
295. 1849. 
|| Leith Adams, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xix. p. 277. 
p. 
