TERTIARY CORALS. 53 



Two of the species, viz., Lobopsammia cariosa, Goldf., sp., and Madrepora Solanderi, 

 Defrance, sp., are found in the Eocene beds of the Paris Basin ; they have not, however, 

 been noticed either in the London Clay or in the Bracklesham and Barton beds in 

 England. 



The Madrepora Solanderi is a species of very doubtful value, and the reasons for this 

 assertion have been already given. 



The Lobopsammia cariosa is found under the name of L. dilatata, Roemer, at Latdorf. 



The Litliarcea and the Axopora from Brockenhurst have no very close specific alliance 

 with the forms of the genus found in the London Clay and the Bracklesham beds. 



The Nummulitic corahfauna^ of Italy, Sinde, &c., has no species in common with that 

 of Brockenhurst ; and the researches of Reuss and Roemer in the coral-faunse of the 

 Tertiary series termed Lower, Middle, and Upper Oligocene, have not produced any 

 results which enable me to correlate any one of those series with the coraliferous beds at 

 Brockenhurst. 



The Miocene coral-fauna has no specific relationship with that under consideration. 



It becomes evident from these considerations that the new coral-fauna has very 

 slight resemblances and affinities with those already described. 



The Brockenhurst corals are, therefore, very remarkable ; the absence of simple forms 

 and the presence of species of Madrepora, Axopora^ and Solenastraa indicate the fonner 

 existence of a vigorous polype-growth, and of all the physical conditions now observed 

 near and about coral-reefs. The great size of the trunk of Madrepora Anglica is 

 especially significant. It may be still true that this coral-fauna was a local one, for at 

 the present day the distinction between reef-, barrier-, and simple coast-corals is suffi- 

 ciently determinable. 



The coral-fauna of the so-called Lower Oligocene beds of Germany is associated with 

 the mollusca which characterise the Brockenhurst beds and their equivalents in the 

 Headon series of the Isle of Wight.'' It is distinct from the coral-fauna of Brockenhurst, 

 although the correlation of the strata can be established from the study of the Mollusca ; 

 hence the probabilities of the Latdorf coral-fauna being that of a coast-line, and of the 

 Brockenhurst being that of an oceanic and reef area, are great. 



The coral-fauna of Brockenhurst is more recent than that of Barton and evidently 

 flourished under very different physical conditions. It is older than the Ealunian and 

 Crag-faunse. 



' The coral-fauna of the Londou Clay, and of the Bracklesham and Barton beds, and of the Paris Basin, 

 is contained to a certain extent in the great Nummulitic coral-fauna of Southern Europe and India ; but 

 there were clearly two coral-provinces during the early Tertiary period, just as there are at the present day — 

 the West Indian and the Pacific. 



2 Axopora is represented in existing reefs by many tabulate corals. 



8 Von Koenen, "Die Fauna der Uuter-Oligocanen Tertiiir-Schichten von Helmstadt," 'Zeitschrift 

 der Deut. geol. Gesell.,' Band xvii, 1865. 



