LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR. 



Mr. John R. Procter, 



Director Kentucky Geological Survey. 



Dear Sir: As you know, several years have passed since I began the 

 work of describing and illustrating the fossil corals of Kentucky. The 

 delays incident to preparing such a work for the press, occupied as I am 

 most of the time with engrossing public duties, have suggested that now, 

 since the plates and the explanations of the plates have been completed, it 

 is best to publish these as Part II., simply prefacing them with an alpha- 

 betical index. 



The text of Part I. will be finished in a few months. Part I. consists 

 of 1. An Introduction, which treats of the growth and habits of coral- 

 making animals, their place in nature, etc.; 2. A Descriptive Text, 

 which classifies the fossil corals found in the Silurian and Devonian Rocks 

 of Kentucky, showing the relations of families, genera, and species, and 

 describing them ; 3. A chapter of Popular Notes, which, following the 

 technical descriptions, presents the salient traits of structure or function 

 characterizing the skeletons of species of the same genus, on the modifica- 

 tions of which the differentiation is based, and collates comprehensively 

 the resemblances and differences of related genera and the more widely 

 divergent family peculiarities ; 4. A Glossary, in which are given the 

 meanings and, in most cases, the etymologies of the technical terms used 

 in the text ; 5. An Index, systematically arranged. 



The literature of this subject is diffused through many volumes of State 

 and Government reports and society periodical or casual publications. 

 Many zealous students of pakeontology, confused by synonymy or per- 



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