OK THE GENUS ALVEOLITES ETC. 355 



A. tuhipo7'acea and A. milleporacea appear to be referable to Favo- 

 sites ; A. clavata may perhaps be a Chcefetes ; and A. infundihuli- 

 formis was afterwards placed by Edwards and Hairae in a new 

 genus under the name of Boemeria. 



Without taking up time by discussing the views entertained as 

 to th.e characters of the genus Alveolites arid tlie different forms 

 referable to it by Groldfuss, De Blainville, Michelin, Steininger, 

 D'Orbigny, and otber well-known palaeontologists, we may pass 

 on to consider those expressed by Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime 

 in their great works on the fossil corals. In the Introduction to 

 the ' Monograph of the British Eossil Corals ' (Palgeontographical 

 Society, 1850, p. Ix), these distinguished authorities place the 

 genus Alveolites in the group of the Eavositidae proper, character- 

 ized by the presence of well-develoj)ed tabulse, the existence of 

 mural pores, and the rudimentary condition of the septa. They 

 define the genus as possessing a " corallum composed of super- 

 posed strata of corallites very similar to those of Favosit.es, but 

 much shorter, and terminated by an oblique semicircular or sub- 

 triaugular calice, the edge of which projects on one side." The 

 type species of the genus is A. sjjonqifes, Steininger (=A. suhor- 

 Ucularis, Lamarck). In their ' Polypiers Eossiles des Terrains 

 Paleozoiques ' (p. 254), the same authors in the succeeding year 

 redefine Alveolites as follows : — " Corallum forming a convex or 

 dendroid mass. Calices oblique, subtriangular or semicii'cular, 

 presenting intei^orly a longitudinal protuberance which is opposed 

 to two other smaller protuberances. These eminences appear to 

 represent the primary septa ; and no other traces of the septal 

 apparatus can be detected. The walls are simple, well deve- 

 loped, pierced with a small number of mural pores. The tabulse 

 are complete and horizontal." After giving a history of the 

 genus, the authors just quoted remark that the elongated teeth 

 or eminences above alluded to constitute the most remarkable 

 feature of the genus Alveolites, and that they are to be regarded 

 as so many primary septa, the other three which form the normal 

 cycle of six being aborted. They further add that one of these 

 three septal teeth is always more pronounced than the other two, 

 and that these latter may be wholly wanting. 



In the ' Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires ' (vol. iii. p. 263, 

 I860). Milne-Edwards makes the following remarks as to Alveo- 

 lites : — " The most striking character of Alveolites is furnished by 

 the septal system, which is represented by three teeth or vertical 



