52 R. G. Garriithers — The Carboniferous Corals 



physical conditions, and accordingly liable to considerable lateral 

 change and variation. 



I have lately had an opportunity to see part of the Bel<>ian 

 sequence under the guidance of M. Delepine. Tlie limestones round 

 Tournai are remarkably flat, so that the numerous large quarries are 

 practically all on the same horizon, ascribed by M. Delepine to the 

 C or Upper Tournaisian sub-zone of Dr. Vaughan's scheme. The 

 assemblage of corals in the quarries visited (Baguette, Pont-a-Uieux, 

 Vaulx, Allain, etc.) was much the same throughout ; a typical list 

 from Pont-a-Rieux gives, in order of abundance : Caninia cornucopicR, 

 Cyathaxonia comu, Znphrentis onialiusi, Z. densa, Amplexus spi?wsus, 

 Caninia patiila, Zaphrentis honinclci^ Z. delanouei, Lophophyllum 

 tortuosum, and Syringothyris sp. There were also two species of 

 Michelinia and some '■ Paleacis'' -\\\q forms, not yet fully identified. 

 Caninia cylindrica was not noticed here ; M. Delepine has found it at 

 a slightly higher liorizon at other quarries in the district. 



I also noticed several specimens of Lophophyllum tortuosmn in the 

 Calcaire de Landelies, along the banks of the Sambre ; the level here 

 is given by M. Delepine as Zg, and is accordingly slightly lower than 

 at Tournai. In Dr. Vaughan's collection from the Bristol district 

 there is an isolated example of this species from the Zg sub-zone, and 

 in the Geological Survey Collection there is another specimen from 

 this level in South Wales (Pr. 2933). I have recognized another 

 example collected by Mr. John Smith, of Dairy, from the Lower 

 Limestone of Castletown in the Isle of Man.^ This specimen (quite 

 normal, except that the dissepiments begin earlier) is of unusual 

 interest, because the horizon seems to be well up in the Visean, and 

 indeed has been considered by Dr. Wheelton Hind to belong to the Dg 

 sub-zone.^ Otlierwise Z. tortuosum appears to be a characteristically 

 Tournaisian species. 



Iiema?-ks. 



Lophophyllum tortuosum must certainly be grouped with, those 

 corals referred to Koninckophyllum at the present time. But the 

 latter genus was founded by Thomson & Nicholson in 1876,^ long 

 subsequent to Lophophyllum, which these authors (relying on the 

 original diagnosis, instead of the re-examination of topotypes) regarded 

 as a Zaphrentid coral with one of the mstjor septa prolonged and 

 thickened. This conception has been followed by other writers, 

 especially in America. 



The Koninchophylla are occasionallj^ compound, but it does not 

 seem possible to separate such forms generically ; the few that are 

 characteristically compound (e.g. Koninckophyllum proliferum) can 

 sometimes be found as ' simple ', or isolated, coralla, and in all other 

 respects their differences from Lophophyllum tortuosum are merely 

 specific. I would suggest, therefore, that the genus Koninckophyllum of 

 Thomson & Nicholson, and also those corals referred by Thomson to 



' Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vol. xiv, pt. ii, p. 1.51, 1911. In the lists 

 appended to this paper most of the corals have been named by Mr. Smith 

 himself. 



- Proc. Yorks Geol. Soc, vol. xvi, pt. ii, p. 150, 1907. 



'■> Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i, p. 297, 1876. 



