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published at Brussels in 1872. This contains a long synonymy of 

 the genus, and also one for each well-known species. He seems 

 to have been one of the first to point out that some forms which 

 have been classed as separate species may be ' individus plus ou 

 moins modifies par l'age ou par le milieu dans lequel ils ont vecu ' 

 (op. cit. p. 121 ). 



The four species described by him were S. distans, S. reticu- 

 lata, S. ramulosa, and S. geniculate*. These are admirably clear 

 descriptions, as may be expected, but there is a strange mistake 

 in the figures on pi. xii. Probably by a printer's error, there 

 is a transposition of geniculata and ramulosa. Pigs. 1 & 1 a are 

 undoubtedly S. ramulosa, Goldf. ; figs. 2, 2 a, 2 6*, 2c, & 2d are 

 undoubtedly a reticulate-geniculate form. Pig. 1 is given as geni- 

 culata, fig. 2 as ramulosa. This mistake has probably misled some 

 subsequent workers : hence we find, described as S. ramulosa, coralla 

 which have all the characters of loosely fasciculate forms of 

 S. reticulata. I do not think that De Koninck follower] Goldfuss 

 sufficiently when he wrote of S. ramulosa : — 



' Polypierites tres-allonges, flexueux, subparalleles, distants entre eux 

 d'environ 2 millimetres.' {Op. cit. p. 126.) 



This would be an excellent description of S. distans, but not of 

 JS. ramulosa, as described by Goldfuss, and later by M'Coy. 



As this is a discussion dealing more with the question of the 

 Carboniferous species than with the systematic position of 

 Syringopora, I propose to omit anything more than a mere 

 mention of three most important papers. These are : — 



(A) G. Lindstrom : ' On the Affinities of the Anthozoa Tabulata ' Ann . 



Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xviii (1876) p. 1 ; see especially p. 14. 



(B) P. W. Sardeson : ' Ueber die Beziehungen der f'ossilen Tabulaten zu 



den Alcyonarien ' Neues Jahrb. f. Min. Beilage-Band x (1896) 

 p. 249. 



(C) W. Weissermel : ' Sind die Tabulaten die Vorlaufer der Alcyonarier ?' 



Zeitschr. Deutsch. Geol. Gesellsch. vol. 1 (1898) p. 54. 



Dr. Sardeson had argued for the close relationship of Syringopora 

 and its allies with the Alcyonaria, but Weissermel (as Lindstrom 

 and Nicholson had done long before) argued against this disposition 

 of the Syringoporidae. Lindstrom had argued in favour of the 

 relationship of Syringopora with Lithostrotion and Biphypliyllum, 

 while Nicholson declared in favour of relationship with the Pavosi- 

 tidse. 1 Nicholson (op. cit.) emphasized the two methods of increase 

 in the number of corallites, namely dichotomous branching and 

 the production of new corallites as offshoots from the transverse 

 tubuli. He also gave excellent figures of a longitudinal and a 

 transverse section of a specimen from Kendal, which he referred to 

 S. reticulata, Goldfuss. 



It is most instructive to take his diagnoses of S. reticulata and 

 #. geniculata, and to compare them closely. It will be seen how 



1 ' On the Structure & Affinities of the " Tabulate Corals" of the Palaeozoic 

 Period' Edinburgh & London: Blackwood & Sons, 1879, pp. 204 et seqq. 



