164 BRITISH FOSSIL CORALS. 



4. Syringopora catenata. 



Ekismatolithus (tubiporites) catenatus, Martin, Petref. Derb., pi. xlii, fig. 1, 1809. 



(Not the fig. 2 which belongs to the 



S. reticulata.) 

 Syringopora catenata, M'Coy, Brit. Palseoz. Foss., p. 83, 1851. 



" Corallum forming large masses of nearly equal, sub-parallel, very slightly diverging 

 tubes, averaging half a line in diameter, and about their diameter apart, connected by 

 nearly equal, transverse tubuli, slightly more than the diameter of the tubes apart, the 

 origin of each producing a slight angular flexuosity in the main tubes ; tubular central 

 opening rather large. Found in the carboniferous limestone of Derbyshire." {M'Coy, 

 op. cit.) 



We have not had an opportunity of examining this fossil, but it appears to be very 

 closely allied to a species found in the Silurian formation, the Syringopora fascicularis, or 

 Tubipora fascicularis of Linnaeus, 1 and seems to differ from it only by the corallites being 

 rather more regular and more closely set. 



Syringopora laxa, of Professor Phillips, 2 is as yet but very imperfectly known; 

 it is described as having its corallites irregularly coalescent and distant, with very few 

 connecting tubes. It was found by that geologist at Ash Fell, Derbyshire, and is 

 mentioned by Colonel Portlock 3 as having been met with at Enniskillen. 



The fossils described by Professor M'Coy, under the names of Aulopora campanulata* 

 Aulopora gigas? Jania bacillaria, 6 and Cladochonus brevicollis,' 1 are evidently young 

 syringoporae. We are inclined to think that Cladochonus tenuicollis of the same author 8 

 may equally belong to this genus, but we entertain more doubt respecting the natural 

 affinities of the fossils which that geologist first described under the names of Jania 

 antique? and Jania crassa, 10 and has more recently referred to the genus Cladochonus. 11 



1 See our Monographic des Polyp, des Terrains Palaeozoiques, p. 29.3. 



2 Geol. of Yorkshire, p. 201. 



3 Report on Londonderry, &c, p. 338. 



* Synop. Carb. Foss. of Ireland, p. 190, tab. xxvi, fig. 15. 



'" Op. cit., tab. xxvii, fig. 14. 6 Op. cit., p. 197, tab. xxvi, fig. 11. 



7 Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 2d Series, vol. iii, p. 128. 8 Ibid., vol. xx, p. 227, tab. xi, fig. 8. 



9 Carbonif. Foss. of Ireland, p. 197, tab. xxvi, fig. 12. 10 Op. cit., tab. xxvii, fig. 4. 



11 Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 2d Series, vol. iii, p. 134. 



