592 w. h. hudlestoj^ oist west-australian 



Genus Stestopora, Lonsdale, 1844. 



In a very able article which has recently appeared in the 'Annals 

 of Natural History'*, on Palseozoic Corals from Northern Queensland, 

 Messrs Nicholson and Etheridge contend that Lonsdale's genns is a 

 good one and worthy of being retained. They admit that, in trans- 

 verse section, across a branch, for instance, the axial corallites are 

 seen to differ in no essential feature of their structure from those 

 of Monticulipora or Favosites. The tubes in this portion of the 

 corallum are regularly polygonal, and are certainly, as a rule, in 

 close contact. But in what they call tangential sections, taken a 

 little below the surface, the characteristic feature of jStenopora is 

 made manifest. Here it is possible to observe the periodical thick- 

 ening which produces the annulations of the tubes in their outer 

 portions f . 



In Count Strzelecki's work t Mr. Lonsdale supplements his dia- 

 gnosis, and describes four species which are figured in plate viii. 

 Two of these are branching forms, viz., /Stenojpora tasmaniensis, 

 and Stenojpora ovata§. In the latter species those portions of the 

 tubes tangential to the axis are very closely annulated, as is shown 

 in the enlargement (fig. 3 a of pi. viii. in Strzelecki's work). The 

 original specimen is in the British Museum, and testifies to the 

 accurate drawing of Mr. J. de C. Sowerby. It is just weathered 

 enough to display the internal structure, and in this way the close 

 annulations of the " horizontal " portions are admirably displayed. 



3. Stenopoea tasmaniensis, Lonsdale, 1844; Darwin's Geol. Obs. 

 Yolc. Islands, p. 161 (1844) ; Strzelecki's Phys. Desc. N.S. 

 Wales, p. 268, t. 8. fig. 2 (1845). 



There are four fragments in Mr. Forrest's collection belonging to 

 a branching coral ; the branches are subcylindrical, and were pro- 

 bably variously inclined or contorted ; tubes more or less divergent ; 

 mouths slightly oval, indications of successive narrowing in each 

 tube uncertain. 



This agrees only moderately well with Lonsdale's description of 

 S. tasmaniensis as given by Strzelecki, though on the whole these 

 specimens have a considerable degree of resemblance to the figure 

 in the plate. Since there is no specimen of S. tasmaniensis in the 

 British Museum, actual comparison has not been practicable. I 

 have failed to detect any accumulation or successive thickening either 

 in the natural sections, or in those that have been cut, though a more 

 practised eye might be able to do so. 



It should be observed that Lonsdale himself merely says that 



* Ser. 5, vol. iv. pp. 265 et seq. 



t Lonsdale's diagnosis of Stenopora concludes as follows : — " Corallites poly- 

 gonal, thin-walled, and more or less completely in contact in the centre of the 

 branches ; but in the outer curved portion of their course, more or less cylin- 

 drical, and annulated by 'periodical ring -shaped thickenings" &c. 



X Physical Description of New South Wales, pp. 262 et seq. 



§ De Koninek made these species synonyms of Chest etes tumidus, and sub- 

 sequently, having shown the existence of mural pores or perforations in S. 

 ovata, he has referred it to the genus Favosites. Nich. and Eth. loc. cit. 



