﻿1851.] 



LONSDALE ON GREENSAND CORALS. 



115 



said in the description that the noticed agreements between the French 

 and English corals were few * ; nevertheless that no structure had 

 been detected in Cyathophora Richardi which did not exist in the 

 British zoophyte (Joe. cit.). The points of agreement refer to the 

 characters of the visceral cavities, also to the limited range centrally 

 or across the diaphragms of the lamellae f ; and the reader will find 

 a great amount of agreement in the longitudinally exposed visceral 

 cavities of M. Michelin's fig. 1 a%, and those truthfully delineated by 

 Mr. de Carle Sowerby§, particularly in the interior distinguished by 

 a -f . It is also mentioned, that the manner of producing additional 

 cavities was probably similar in each fossil || . The characters of the 

 spaces between the abdominal receptacles of Cyathophora Richardi 

 are neither delineated nor described ; but weather-worn or abraded 

 portions of the lower greensand coral showed as little of the real 

 nature of the intervals as the delineations in the ' Iconographie Zoo- 

 phytologique^|.' So far therefore as a comparison could be carried, 

 an agreement existed ; and not feeling justified in assuming, that the 

 undelineated and undescribed parts of the French fossil resembled the 

 equivalent portions of the English zoophyte or differed from them, the 

 author conceives that he decided rightly in referring the lower green- 

 sand coral provisionally to M. Michelin's genus ; but in the original 

 notice he however added, should palaeontologists hereafter show, that 

 in the unascertained structures of Cyathophora Richardi there is a 

 decided difference, the name of Holocystis might be adopted for the 

 Atherfield fossil * * . The name has been adopted, but the unascertained 

 structures have not been describedff. M. M. -Edwards and M. Haime 

 remark, however, that Cyathophora does not in their opinion differ 

 from true Stylina%% ; and they state in the ' Annales des Sciences Na- 

 turelles§§,' in the synonyms to Sty Una Bourgueti, that Cyathophora 

 Richardi "ne nous semble differer du polypier que nous decrivons que 

 par le mauvais e'tat de conservation." The author of this Memo- 

 randum has never seen a specimen of Sty I. echinulata, the coral on 

 which Lamarck founded his genus ; but MM. M. -Edwards and 

 Haime || || identify M. Michelin's Styl. Gaulardi^^j with it, stating 

 moreover that the figure (5) is " assez bonne," and condemning the re- 

 presentations of Schweigger*f and De Blainville*J. A careful con- 

 sideration of M. Michelin's figure just quoted, as well as of his delinea- 

 tion of Styl. tubulo$a*§, a species recognised by the authorities so 

 often mentioned* [I, assisted by the remarks on Sty Una given in the 

 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles*^,' has not enabled the author of 

 this Memorandum to detect in Cyathophora Richardi, as delineated, 

 and no doubt truthfully, the essential structures of Stylince. The 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. p. 83, 1. 27. 



f P. 83, 1. 5 et seq. ; p. 82, 1. 11 from bottom. % Icon. Zooph. pi. 26. 



§ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. pi. 4. fig. 13. || P. 83, 1. 25. 



Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. p. 82, 1. 1 from bottom, and continued p. 83, 1. 1-3. 

 ** P. 83, 1. 17 from bottom. ft Pal. Soc. vol. for 1850, p. 70, 71. 



XX Op. cit. p. 71. §§ Troisieme serie, t. x. p. 291, 1848. 



Illl Ann. Sc. Nat. t. x. p. 289. fa Icon. Zooph. p. 97. pi. 21. fig. 5. 



*f Beobachtungen, pi. 7. figs. 63 a~d. *JMan. d'Actinol. pi. 62. figs. 5, 5 a, b. 

 *§ Op. cit. p. 97. pi. 21. fig. 6. *|| Ann. Sc. Nat. p. 289. *1f P. 288. 



