4 GUSTAF LINDSTRÖM. 



epitheca resembles very much what is seen in several of the Balanophyllise, and also in 

 some of the Recent and Mesozoic corals of the Anthozoa Aporosa. The epitheca partakes in 

 some very peculiar expansions, which assume the shape of a sort of hooked appendices, 

 and pour out from the calice the börder of which is then bent down, towards the basis 

 of the coral. As far as I am aware such expansions and enlargements of the calice 

 beyond its boundaries are not to be seen in any living Perforate coral nor are they vi- 

 sible in any but the Paleeozoic corals of the Rugose order, this anc.ient Perforate being the 

 only exception known, and thus partaking in this palasozoic character of growth, and 

 in its strangeness and excess surpassing most of the Rugosa. These expansions began 

 by forming a small projecting corner or sinus in the börder of the calice, then continued 

 growing downwards, and in younger individuals attached themselves to other marine bodies, 

 but iii older ones ended on the sides of the coral, and by thus accumulating fresh layers 

 on the older, always succeeding each other in the same direction. fmally assumed the 

 shape of an elevated ridge mpre or less scantily covered with an epitheca. These emana- 

 tions from the calice sometimes continue a great way downwards, for instance in an 

 individual of 43 millim. for 28 millim. from the calice, with which they at the ti me of 

 their formation must have been in organic eonnection. The soft tissues of the animal in 

 this way flowed down encroaching upon every coral or shell in its iminediate vicinity, 

 destroying their life, and at the same time strengthening its own position by the strong 

 buttresslike offshoots from its own sclerenchyma. It was from these broad calicular ex- 

 pansions as their basis that the buds arose, and they are almost exclusively arranged on 

 that side towards which the polype was leaning when attached to other bodies. The 

 largest speciinen I have seen was thus provided with no less than ten such gemmte, all 

 starting from hooked expansions. Buds are also growing directly from out the parent 

 wall or the outside of the septa without the intervention of the expansions, quite as seen 

 in the Recent Dendrophyllia, to which it bears a close resemblance. In a few instances 

 there also seem to be calicular gemtnute, but they are more easily to be confounded Avith 

 those irregularities in growth, a peculiarity common to all Palaeozoic corals excepting the 

 Tabulata, and consisting in a restriction of the calice, the animal having diininished in 

 voluine, and forined a new but much smaller calice within the precincts of the old one. 

 It may also be that the young larva attached itself to the interiör wall of the calice of 

 its parent, as so often is the case amongst the Recent corals 1 ). Sometimes there exists a 

 gradual tapering off in the circumference of the coral as the polype gained in height, 

 indicating a decline in the secreting powers of the animal, which thus has been dwind- 

 ling away till it had scarcely any room more left for itself in its own calice. A speci- 

 men for instance from having had a diameter of 13 millim. at last reaches only 5 

 millim. 



The principal mäss of the coral consists of the numerous septa, which are built 

 up of porous and knotty sclerites having slender and thin branches with openings be- 

 tween them. The septa are very numerous, amounting to 140 in a specimen of 26 millim. 

 in diameter. Judging by young specimens possessing 24 septa they seem to be arran- 



l ) Duncan, Student 1869 p. 84. 



