﻿284 



Dli. STANLEY' SMITH ON AULLXA EOTIFOUMIS, [vol. lxxii, 



it is frequently defined as the ' basal epitheca.' It represents 

 merely the epitheca of the outer side of the peripheral corallites. 



IV. Piullipsaste^a d'Orbigny. 



Summary of Research. 



William Lonsdale (1840), in Sedgwick & Murehison's 'Physical 

 Structure of Devonshire, & on the Subdivisions & Geological 

 Relations of its older Stratified Deposits, etc' Trans. Geol. Soc. 

 ser. 2, vol. v, pt. 3, p. (597, pi. lviii, figs. 3, 3 a, & 3 b, described, 

 under the name of ' Astrea (Siderastrea de Blainville) hemutliii 

 (sp. n.),' 1 a type of colonial coral since proved very character- 

 istic of the Upper Devonian. The specimen (or specimens) upon 

 which the species was established was stated to have been found 

 at Barton, north-west of St. Marychurch, and to have been in 

 the collection of Daniel Sharpe. 3 This collection is now in the 

 Museum of Practical Geology. 



The specimen represented by fig. 3 can be recognized with 

 absolute certainty in No. G185 ; but the source of fig. H a is 

 uncertain : it was jirobably another fossil. Edwards & Haime 

 assumed such to be the case, although Lonsdale made no mention 

 of there being two specimens. 



John Phillips (1841), 1 Figures & Descriptions of the Paheozoic 

 Fossils of Cornwall, Devon, & West Somerset ' p. 12, pi. vi, 

 figs. 16a«, 16 fib, 16 /3 c, & pi. vii, fig. 15 D, illustrated A. 

 liennahi by a drawing (fig. 16a a) clearly intended to represent 

 the weathered surface of Lonsdale's actual specimen, and by two 

 figures — 16 fi b (enlarged) & 16 (3 a (natural size) — of a polished 

 specimen in his own possession. His description of the species does 

 not differ materially from that given by Lonsdale — in fact, Phillips 

 appended to it the following statement : — 



' The above description is almost verbatim from Mr. Lonsdale. I have 

 added the words in brackets, from a beautiful polished specimen in my 

 possession (fig-. 16 c), which may be distinct.' 



Phillips's specimen unquestionably belongs to the same genus as 

 Lonsdale's ; but the figure is not sufficiently exact to enable one 

 to pronounce a certain opinion as to the species. PI. vii, fig. 15 d, 

 is that of a specimen which Phillips found in the Carboniferous 

 Limestone of Flintshire, and figured under the impression that it 

 was allied to, if not identical with. A. hennahi Lonsdale. As 

 a matter of fact, the species bears no relationship at all to the 

 Devonian coral, but is the form that I here describe as Or ion - 

 as/rcea phillipsi (McCoy). Unfortunately, this figure has been 

 the cause of much subsequent confusion. It must be borne in 



! J. B. Lamarck, ' Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebras ' 1801, p. 371. 



2 Daniel Sharpes Collection was presented to the Geological Society by 

 Henry Sharpe, his brother, in 1856, and passed into the possession of the 

 Museum of Practical Geology in 1911, when the Society divided its collection 

 between that institution and the British Museum — the British material going 

 to the former and the foreign to the latter. 



