126 Mr. F. M'Coy on some new genera and species of 



This magnificent species is the only true Astrcea I have yet 

 seen from the palaeozoic rocks, the numerous corals of this age 

 described under this generic title by British and foreign authors 

 belonging for the most part to the family CyathophyllicUe-^ often 

 transversely septate in the middle and having solid polygonal 

 divisional walls to the stars — characters completely at variance 

 with those of the recent and mesozoic Astnsce, and indicating 

 important differences in the animals and mode of increase. 



Abundant in some parts of the carboniferous limestone near 

 Bake well, Derbyshire ; more rare in the same formation at 

 Corwen. 



{Col. University of Cambridge.) 



Heterophyllia (M^Coy), n. g. 



Gen. Char. Stem elongate, subcylindrical, irregularly fluted lon- 

 gitudinally : horizontal section, few, 

 distant lamellae destitute of any order 

 of arrangement, but irregularly 

 branching and coalescing in their 

 passage from the thin solid external 

 walls towards some indefinite point 

 near the centre, where the few main 

 lamellae irregularly anastomose : ver- 

 tical section showing about the middle 

 an irregularly flexuous line (the edge 

 of one or two of the radiating vertical 

 lamellae), from which on each side a 

 row of thin, distant, siffmoidally „ , , „. , • -. 



curved plates extends obliquely up- ^tem ; h. horizontal and 

 wards and outwards, forming a row of vertical section. 

 large rhomboidal cells on each side. 



The paradoxical characters of the lamellae — their perfect want 

 of symmetry of disposition, and their irregular branch-like union 

 among themselves, together with the remarkable openness of the 

 cellular structure, render those corals totally unlike any other 

 recent or fossil group. From Cladocora and Caryophyllia, to 

 which they are most allied, they are distinguished by the want 

 of the cellular axis, and by their few, unsymmetrical and anasto- 

 mosing lamellae. I suspect the Cladocora ? sulcata of Lonsdale 

 may belong to this group, but I have not seen examples of it 

 myself. 



Heterophyllia grandis (M'Coy) . 



Sp. Char. Stem slightly flexuous, about 5 lines in diameter, 

 scarcely tapering in 3 inches, longitudinally marked with deep 

 unequal grooves, and few, large, polygonal, unequal ridges, 



