850 G. BR. VINE ON CRETACEOUS LICHENOPORID®. 
53. Notes on some Cretaczous LicHenoporipz. By G. R. Vuxe, Esq. 
(Communicated by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., F.G.S.) 
(Read June 25, 1884.) 
Iw his classification of British Marine Polyzoa (1880, vol i. p. 471) 
Mr. Hincks established the family Lichenoporidz for the inclusion 
of a very peculiar group of recent Polyzoa. In this family two 
genera are admitted and defined, Lxchenopora, Defrance, and Domo- 
pora, d'Orbigny. In the synonymy appended to these genera no 
fewer than twenty-one obsolete names are given, and others could 
have been added to the catalogue. In his remarks on the genus 
Lichenopora (op. cit. p. 472) Mr. Hincks observes :—* D’Orbigny 
has constructed a large number of genera, which are merely 
arbitrary groups based on very trivial modifications of this well- 
marked type.” One of the suppressed genera of the Lichenoporide 
is Radiopora, @Orb.; and as species belonging to the genus are 
occasionally met with in our own Neocomian rocks, I have thought 
it better to direct attention to one species at least, before describing 
a form altogether new. 
The genus Radiopora is accepted and described by Mr. Busk, in 
his British-Museum Catalogue of Marine Polyzoa (Pt. iii. Cyelo- 
stomata, p. 34), as follows :— 
“ Family DISCOPORELLIDA, Busk. 
(3) Raptopora, d Orb. 
D’Orb., 1874, Pal. Frang. p. 992. 
“ Zoarium adnate, crustaceous, spreading irregularly, and composed 
of confluent disks like those of Discoporella: surface reticulate or 
cancellous; cells disposed in serial lines radiating from the centres 
of the constituent disks.” Brit. Mus. Cat. pt. iii. p. 34. 
In the British Marine Polyzoa (p. 473), Mr. Hincks begins his 
description of the species of Lichenopora thus :—*“ 1. Colony simple ; 
or composed of many confluent disks. (Radiopora, d’Orbigny.)’ 
The type species of Lichenopora is L. hispida, Flem., and one of 
the varieties of this well-known form isgiven by Mr. Hincks (p. 473) 
as “ Var. a (meandrina, Peach).” Thisis a composite variety with a 
well-marked character ; and if we accept the type and the variety as 
Lichenopore, why then I can see no justifiable reason for keeping 
the two genera for recent and fossil species, when both may be 
included in one. As, however, there are peculiarities of structure 
in the Neocomian fossil, altogether unlike the structure of recent 
Discoporelle, it will be best to redescribe the Cretaceous form. 
I cannot say whether we are right in assigning to d’Orbigny the 
following species; but as the fossil came into my possession as named 
below, and as I have used the name in my British-Association Report 
on Fossil Polyzoa, iv. 1883, I will let it stand for the present. 
