A MONOGRAPH 



BRITISH FOSSIL CORALS. 



SECOND SEBIE8. 



PREFACE. 



Twelve years have elapsed since MM. Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime completed 

 their great ' Monograph of the British Eossil Corals' for the Palseontographical Society. 



During this period Geology and Palaeontology have been very carefully studied, 

 with the aid of all the accessories of modern scientific research. Many strata which had 

 been considered almost unfossiliferous have been discovered to contain both known and 

 unknown species, and those beds which yielded the specimens so admirably described and 

 figured by the great French Zoophytologists have been successfully searched for others. 



The interest in the study of the Madreporaeia has been greatly increased since the 

 publication of the " Introduction" in the ' Monograph of the British Fossil Corals,' for the 

 list and the description of the genera which it contained facilitated the diagnosis of species. 

 In 1857 the authors of that "Introduction" commenced a work which has remained the 

 best and, in fact, the only text-book for the student of recent and fossil Corals. The 

 'Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires ' was completed in 1860, by Milne-Edwards, after the 

 death of his able and amiable colleague, M. J. Haime. The anatomy, physiology, and 

 classification of the Zoantharia are admirably given in this work, and the classification is, 

 with slight modifications, adopted by all Zoophytologists. 



The distinguished authors modified many of their genera and introduced others, con- 

 sequently the " Introduction" in the First Part of the ' British Fossil Corals' is incomplete 

 and behind the day. 



Many authors have added to the general knowledge of the comparative anatomy of 

 recent Corals, and a few have given elaborate descriptions of fossil species ^ since the publi- 



' Reuss, in his ' Beitrage zur Charakteristik der Kreideschichten in den Ostalpen,' &c. De Fromentel, 

 ' Polypiers Fossiles.' Laube, ' Corals of St. Cassian, in Die Fauna der Scliichten von St. Cassian,' 1 Abtheil. 

 Micbelotti et Ducbassaing, 'Mem. Acad. Turin,' 2nd series, vol. xix, p. 279, 1861. Seguenza, ' Disquisi- 

 zioni Palenn. intorno di Corall. Foss. di Messina.' There are also memoirs on the West Indian, Australian, 

 Sindian, Maltese, and Javanese fossil Corals, by myself. 



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