2 BRITISH FOSSIL CORALS 



An analysis of the work of these authors, with the exception of that of Dr. Wright, is 

 found scattered over the pages of MM. Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime's " Monograph of 

 the Oolitic Corals," Pal. Soc, 1851. No new species of fossil Corals have been described 

 from the Oolitic rocks since that date until very recently. During the last year or two, how- 

 ever, I have added to the species already known five from the Great Oolite, and thirteen from 

 the Inferior Oolite. A careful study of the Thecosmilia of the Inferior Oolite at Crickley 

 has enabled me to distinguish five very remarkable varieties of Thecosmilia gr eg aria, M'Coy, 

 sp., and to satisfy myself that the relations of the Thecosmilia of the Lias to the genera 

 Isastraa, Latimaandra, and others were repeated in the Inferior Oolite. There are specimens 

 of Thecosmilia gregaria in Dr. Wright's collection which, had I not had a considerable 

 series to examine from other sources, might have been associated with Reuss's new genus 

 Heterogyra, together with Symphyllia and Latimaandra. The relation of these genera 

 (except Heterogyra) to Montlivallia has been noticed in the first Report (Brit. Assoc. 

 Report, Norwich, p. 106 et seq.), and there is a clear proof that the same phenomena of 

 evolution may occur consecutively. That is to say, the St. Cassian Montlivaltia and 

 Thecosmilia varied and became permanent, compound, and serial Corals of such genera 

 as Elysastraa, Isastraa, and Latimaandra ; then the Liassic Thecosmilia did the same ; 

 and now it is evident that a Montlivallia of the Inferior Oolite occasionally took on 

 fissiparous growth, and superadded to others a marginal gemmation and a serial growth, 

 and evolved forms which cannot be distinguished from those of the genera above 

 mentioned and Symphyllia and Heterogyra. There was evidently an inherent power of 

 variation which declared itself in the same direction during the ages which witnessed the 

 formation of the St. Cassian and the Liassic and the Lower Oolitic deposits ; and it is 

 impossible to deny a genetic value to these oft-repeated structural phenomena. 



One of the Thecosmilia from the Inferior Oolite at Crickley, which I have named 

 Thecosmilia Wrighti, is very closely related to one of the Lower Liassic species. 



It is interesting to find the genus Cyclolites represented in the Inferior Oolite by two 

 well-marked species, one of which is like the rest of the forms of the genus in shape, and 

 the other is exceptional in its trochoid form. This last species has, however, all the other 

 characteristics of the genus. The Cyclolites are extinct; they flourished in the earlier 

 Cretaceous seas, and lasted during the Miocene. MM. Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime 

 (' Hist. Nat. des Corall.') mention that the genus originated in the Jurassic age, but 

 they produce no evidence to substantiate the assertion. 



A form belonging to a new genus of the Fungida was found by Mr. Mansel at East 

 Coker in the Inferior Oolite In general shape and in the arrangement of the calices 

 the specimen resembles Dimorphastraa ; but the existence of synapticulas between the septa 

 and between the costae necessitates its association with the Fungida. There is a central calice, 

 and the others are in a circle around it, being separated by long horizontal septo-costal pro- 

 longations ; the whole is surrounded by an epitheca, and forms a turbinate shape, the free 

 surface being flat and circular. This genus, which I have called Dimorphoseris, foreshadows 

 the genera Cyathoseris and Trochoseris of the Lower Chalk. 



