ON SOME EECENT AND EOSSIL SPECIES 



OF 



Australian Selenariad^e (Polyzoa). 



By the Kev. J. E. Tenison "Woods, E.G-.S., E.L.S., 



President of the Linnean Soc. o£ N.S.W., Hon. Member of the 

 Adelaide Phil. Soc, &c, &c. 



(Eead September 2, 1879.) 



[Plates I— II.] 



The Selenariadse is a family of Polyzoa, proposed by Mr. Or. 

 Bnsk in 1853 in the British Museum Catalogue of that class 

 (part 2, p. 97). It is comprised in the order Gymnolsemata, 

 suborder Cheilostomata, section Inarticulate, sub-section 

 Eigidse, group Libera?, or with the zoarium unattached, usually 

 discoid, conical, or irregular. The family includes orbicular, 

 or irregular conical or depressed zoaria, which are convex on 

 the upper side, and plane or concave on the other. They are 

 composed of a single layer of cells, usually of two kinds, which 

 open on the convex surface only. They were included among 

 Eoraminif era by Lamarck and. Lamouroux ; but the latter 

 classed them amongst his Milleporida?, and suggested the 

 subgenera Gupularia and I/imulites (Exposit. Method., p. 44), 

 which Busk subsequently adopted as genera. The true nature 

 of the organisms was perceived first by De Blainville, who 

 placed them at the head of his family Cellarisea, and close to 

 Flustra. He characterises his genus Lunulites as consisting of 

 cellules, with a superior opening disposed in concentric circles 

 and radiating lines, so as to form a calcareous polypidom, 

 somewhat regular orbicular, convex above, concave below, and 

 marked with furrows radiating from the centre to the circum- 

 ference. He cites as species L. radiata, Lamarck (Anim. s. 

 vert., vol. 2, p. 191), copied into the Encyclop. Meth., pi. 479, 

 fig. 6 a. b. (Atlas, pi. 75, fig. 5 a. b.), L. urceolata, Lam., 1. c 

 and Lamouroux (G-en. Polyp., pi. 73, fig. 9 to 12). He then 

 adds that this genus has been established by Lamarck for the 

 above two small fossils, only differing from true Flustras in 

 being free and having a determinate circumscribed form. He 

 remarks, further, that the second species had appeared in 



A. 



