386 JR. F. Tomes — Inferior Oolite Mad 'repor aria. 



maintained are substantiated is yet open to question. The purpose 

 of the paper is to re-assert what I have objected to, namely, that the 

 distant and cylindrical corallites of such compound and compact corals 

 from the Sutton Stone and neighbouring conglomerates as have 

 columellas have become cylindrical by matter added to the walls them- 

 selves, and not by the interposition of true coenenchyraa, as in Stylina 

 and other allied genera. To this I shall refer on some future occasion. 

 Professor Duncan's third paper is an answer to one of mine on some 

 Cretaceous Madreporaria, and the consideration of it may also remain 

 over until another opportunity. But the second paper, as it relates 

 principally to Oolitic genera and species, may be here discussed. 

 I have not, however, the remotest intention of entering into a con- 

 troversy on the many points on which Professor Duncan and I 

 entertain opposite opinions. Controversy, when carried to the length 

 it sometimes is, embarrasses the editor, is offensive to the reader, and 

 lowers the tone of the periodical in which it appears — a consummation 

 much to be regretted. "With every wish, however, to avoid such an 

 occurrence, I must claim the privilege of making known the con- 

 clusions to which my investigations have brought me, and of re- 

 asserting or modifying from time to time, if I have good reason for 

 doing so, any statement I may have made. But while doing this, it 

 will be my most earnest wish to avoid the occurrence of anything 

 which may seem captious or discourteous. 



A great many of the objections raised by Professor Duncan against 

 my several papers on the Madreporaria of our Secondary formations 

 refer to mere matters of oversight, and as they do not affect the con- 

 clusions arrived at, are of little importance. They might prove 

 useful on some future occasion in making corrections, were the 

 papers to re-appear in a collective form. Objections of another kind 

 take the form of direct and unsupported contradiction of facts, and 

 there are again, some, which, from their very nature, and for the 

 author's own sake, should be allowed to pass unnoticed. But such 

 statements as affect the definition of genera and the determination of 

 species, and have therefore a more legitimate bearing on the subject 

 in hand, will receive due attention in their proper place. 



A collection of specimens from the Inferior Oolite of Dorsetshire 

 has lately been placed in my hands by Mr. Buckman, and these with 

 others kindly supplied by Mr. Hudleston, with the addition of a 

 collection made by me during a recent visit to the same district, 

 have afforded me the long-wished-for opportunity of comparing the 

 Dorsetshire and Somersetshire species with those from the counties 

 of Oxford and Gloucester. A list of the Dorsetshire species will be 

 given further on. 



Diligent search has been made for Corals in the lowest beds of the 

 Inferior Oolite at Crickley Hill, Leckhampton Hill, Cleeve Hill, 

 and Frocester Hill, in consequence of the species already found 

 in them having differed so materially from those in the more 

 clearly defined coralliferous deposit overlying the Pisolite. They 

 are, besides, interesting as being the earliest representatives of 

 Madreporaria in the Oolitic formation, differing greatly in their facies 



