RUGOSA. 49 



Order RUGOSA M.-Edw. & H. 



The section of Rugosa was established by Milne-Edwards and Ilahne 

 for a large number of fossil corals, all of an older age than the carbonif- 

 erous formation, and particularly alum iant in the palaeozoic ages. Their 

 chief characteristic, according to those authors, is the development of 

 the septa proceeding from four primary ones, whilst in all of the living- 

 corals the primary number i- six. In addition, the chambers are closed 

 interiorly by an abundant endotheca, often assuming the shape of floors ; 

 but this character is not found in all the families of the section, though 

 certainly in the greater number. Mr. R. Ludwig has shown (H. v. 

 Meyer's PalceontograpMca, Vols. X. and XIV.) that the tetrameral 

 arrangement claimed for the Rugosa is only apparent, there being origi- 

 nally six primary septa ; hut that the further development in each 

 system is asymmetrical: and that two of the systems remain generally 

 undeveloped. 



I had. before having knowledge of Ludwig's researches, come substan- 

 tially to the same conclusions by the examination of Lophophyttum />/<<- 

 Uferum Edw. & II.. from the carboniferous formation, a form very suitable 

 for that study. As I hud my mode of explaining the development 

 slightly different from Ludwig's. it may not be too much out of place to 

 mention if here in a few words. 



When the youngest stage of the coral is examined by cutting through 

 the tip of the conical Lophophyllum proliferum, six primary septa and six 

 interseptal chambers are found, placed symmetrically on two sides of 

 a vertical plane, and unequally developed. This plane would pass 

 through .wo of the primary septa, of which one may be called anterior 

 and the other posterior, for convenience merely. The two lateral 

 systems (which would be divided by a plane at right angles to the 

 antero-posterior plane) arc at the earliest stages larger than the others. 

 In progress of growth the anterior primary system is checked in its 

 development, and the two adjacent chambers partly coalesce to form the 

 so-called septalfossa. The posterior primary septum is fully developed, 

 and joins the columella (when there is one). The systems between 

 this and the two adjacent primaries do not become subdivided again, so 

 that these three septa remain close together : according to Ludwig, 

 they subdivide to a small extent in some genera. Thus, of the six 

 primary interseptal chambers, the two posterior ones remain undivided. 

 The four other ones are each divided by a secondary septum /joining the 

 primary; of the two half-systems thus formed in each, the anterior one 

 is again divided by a tertiary septum joining the secondary; next the 

 anterior quarter-systems are divided, and so on. The four lateral 



