78 PALEOZOIC CORALS AND FORAMINIFERA. 



Forms small masses in the carboniferous limestone of Derby- 

 shire. 



{Col. University of Cambridge.) 



Stromhodes. 



Strombodes (Schweigger, not of Lonsdale) = Lithostrotion 



(Lonsd.). 



This genus is defined by Prof. Schweigger (Beobachtungen 

 auf Naturhistorischen Reisen, &c. tab. 6) as " CeUuIa lamelloscjej 

 centra depresso. Stirps e conis lamellosis in strata horizontalia 

 conjunctis. Cellula terminalis cyathifoimisJ' And he makes 

 two divisions : 1st, " coni e centra proliferi" for which he refers 

 to the ' Amcenitates Academicse ^ of Linnseus, vol. i. pi. at p. 312, 

 figs. 11 and 4 (this figure however shows the origin of a marginal 

 bud at one point). His 2nd group, "com e disco proliferi/' and 

 the reference to the same plate, figs. 10 and 3, belong to a true 

 Cyathophyllum [C. dianthus, Gold.) ; his 1st group and the refer- 

 ence to the figures and description in the ^ Amoenitates Acade- 

 micse ' must therefore be taken as the type of the genus, and seem 

 fully to justify the reference by Goldfuss of his iVmerican Strom- 

 bodes pentagonum to this genus, the more so when the reference 

 in Fougt's description, above referred to, to fig. 18 of the above 

 plate, is taken into account. A coral perfectly similar to that of 

 Goldfuss has been also figured by Mr. Dana in ^Silliman's Journal,^ 

 vol. iii. N.S., as an example of Strombodes. As therefore the notion 

 that those compound polygonal-celled corals are the true Strom- 

 bodes of Schweigger seems to prevail extensively, and 1 think 

 justly, it only remains for me to add, that having carefully ex- 

 amined authentic specimens of the S. pentagonum, 1 find the cone- 

 in- cone appearance of some of the figures to be produced by a 

 peculiarity of weathering by which many of the vesicular plates 

 towards the circumference of the stars have fallen out, and that 

 the coral truly possesses all the characters so admirably eluci- 

 dated by Mr. Lonsdale in the ^ Geology of Russia ' under the title 

 of Lithostrotion, a name which it would be well now to replace 

 by the old title Strombodes of Schweigger. In no case could 

 either the definition or references of Schweigger justify the placing 

 those Silurian and Devonian corals called Strombodes by Mr. 

 Lonsdale in this genus. The following species is generically 

 placed in accordance with this view. 



Strombodes conaxis (M^Coy). 



Sp. Char. Columns irregularly aggregated, averaging half an inch 

 in width, mostly hexagonal : axis elliptical, formed of a series 



) 



