MIDDLE AND WESTERN ENGLAND AND SOUTH WALES. 375 
forms. The mollusca and other corals, however, indicated a 
Hettangian age. He saw no reason from the paper for altering his 
opinion as to the age of the deposits. They were not Triassic or 
even Rheetic, but belonged to the Infra-Lias. He knew of no ex- 
amples of fossil coral-atolls, and he could not accept the peculiar 
views of the author, but believed that the corals were of the same 
age as the limestone in which they are found. The classification 
he had adopted for the Astroceme@ and allied forms years ago he 
still maintained. He did not agree in the value of a genus like 
Stylastrea, which was founded upon its denticulate septa alone ; and 
the form described by Laube was neither Phyllocenia nor Cyatho- 
cenia. He pointed out that Mr. Tomes, in his critical essays, had 
made some errors which diminished the value of his criticisms 
upon Milne-Edwards and the speaker. Thus Mr. Tomes, in his 
last paper, had stated that Astroconia and Jsastrea bud from the 
wall, which is wrong. Ina former paper he accused Milne-Edwards 
of error in relation to the septal number of a Montlivaliia ; yet Mr. 
Tomes’s own figures proved that the distinguished French zoophy- 
tologist was correct. On one occasion when the speaker protested 
against Thamnastrea being placed in the Perforata, Mr. Tomes in- 
sisted and persisted. But Mr. Tomes, in his next communication, 
put the genus back into the Fungide, having found out his own 
error. Pratz had disposed of the ideas of Milaschewitsch about 
Thamnastrea belonging to the Perforata. It was to be regretted 
that Mr. Tomes had not studied recent corals, and that his expe- 
rience was confined to the fossil forms from a limited area in the 
west of England. 
Mr. Erueriver considered the question of the age of the Sutton 
beds as still an open one. Mr. Tawney had been satisfied that he 
was wrong in his original views, and that the beds were truly of 
the age of the zone of Amm. angulatus. He bore testimony to the 
care and labour bestowed on the study of corals by Mr. Tomes. He 
agreed with Dr. Duncan as to the non-existence of coral-reefs in the 
Jurassic deposits. 
The Presipenr pointed out the difficulty of believing in the 
existence of coral-reefs of Keuper age in the part of South Wales 
referred to, under the conditions which we know to have charac- 
terized that period in England. 
