178 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



This is a rather meager description and yet it is all there really is for 

 the type of the genus Zaphrentls. It must be remembered that methods 

 of study were not as exact then as now, and that generally not all the 

 important characters in a specimen were noted and recorded. The main 

 points recognized by Eafinesque and Clifford are the turbinate, curved 

 corallum ; straight septa ; external striae, and the fossula, situated either 

 dorsally or on the convex cur^^ature. 



In the same year there appeared in Paris a paper on corals by Lesueur 

 (2) in which occurs the following description of a species called Caryo- 

 phyllia cornicula: 



It occurs singly, of a simple form, without the appearance of a base for 

 attachment, horn-shaped, longitudinally striate, with gentle transverse undu- 

 lations. 



Upper extremity broad, with thin edge ; calyx more or less concave, septa 

 serrate ; two or three inches in length.* 



Both of these papers seem to have been forgotten for about thirty 

 years, for later authors did not refer to them during that time. Har- 

 douin Michelin in 1840, apparently never having heard of the genus 

 Zaphrentls, described a new genus at the Congress of Turin and dedi- 

 cated it to M. Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, calling it Caninia. 

 At this time, no species was mentioned, and it was not until the publica- 

 tion of the "Iconographie Zoophytologique" that we find all the species 

 and figures given. This book is made up of various parts brought out 

 from time to time during the years from 1840 to 1847. Corals from the 

 Carboniferous to the present are described, the whole book being arranged 

 on a geographical rather than a zoological plan ; that is, for each locality 

 considered, all of the corals are described, and thus we find the four 

 species of Caninia treated at different times and in different parts of the 

 book. Caninia is first mentioned in the Iconographie in the description 

 of the Sable fauna on page 81 without generic diagnosis, C. gigantea 

 being there described. It was not until several 3^ears later in the discus- 

 sion of the Tournay fauna that C. cornucopia; was first figured. (5, pi. 59, 

 fig. 5.) Thus one of the mistakes which has long been made as to the 

 type of the genus is accounted for. For the reason that C. gigantea^ is 

 the first species of Caninia described in this book, it has by some authors 

 been considered the genotype of Caninia, the genus being considered 



* "Se pr6sente isol6e, en tige simple, sans apparance de base pour se fixer, d'une forme 

 cornlcul6e, striee longitudinalement, avec de legores ondulations transverses. 



"Extr€mit6 sup^rieure large, il 1)ord mince ; etoile plus ou raoins concave, rayons 

 serr6s ; deux a trois pouces de longiieur." (2, 207. 298.) 



"^ ^ Caninia gigantea of Michelin must not be confounded witli Caryophi/llia gigantea 

 Lesueur, which is entirely distinct and will be considered below. 



