102 History of Falceozoic Actinology in Australia. 



Art. XIV. — On Heat and Molecular Energy. 

 By H. S. Patching, Esq. 



[Read 8th November, 1877.] 



Art. XY. — On the History of Palceozoic Actinology in 

 Australia. 



By K Etheridge, Jun., F.G.S. 



[Read 8tli November, 1877.] 



The following condensed account of the study of the 

 corals of the Australian palaeozoic rocks may be found of 

 service to those who may hereafter take up the systematic 

 study of this group : — 



In the course of the surveying voyage of H.M.S. " Beagle," 

 under the command of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N., during the years 

 1832-36, Mr. Charles Darwin, F.R.S., naturalist to the 

 expedition, collected two palaeozoic corals in Tasmania. 

 These were afterwards described by the celebrated actinolo- 

 gist, Mr. Lonsdale, in Darwin's Geological Observations on 

 Volcanic Islands,'^ pubhshed in 1844, under the names of 

 Stenopova Tasmaniensis, and S. ovata. The genus Steno- 

 2Dora was established expressly for these species in the work 

 referred to, but was more fully defined in Count P. de 

 Strzelecki's work, published during the next year (1845), 

 Physical Descriiotion of New South Wales and Van 

 JDiemens Land.'^ The full definition of the genus was 

 accompanied by the description of two further species — 

 Stenopora crinita and >S^. inforinis ^ — the former from New 

 South Wales, the latter from Tasmania. In addition to the 

 foregoing Mr. Lonsdale also described in Strzelecki's work 

 another coral as Aniplexus arundinacev^s,^ and mentioned 

 the occurrence in the limestones of Yass Plains, New South 



1 London, 1844 ; 8vo ; Appendix, pp. 161-163. 



2 London, 1845 ; S^o ; p. 262, 



3 Ibid, pp. 264-65 ; pi. 8, fig. 5. 

 * Ibid, p. 267. 



