DESCRIPTION 



OF 



THE BRITISH FOSSIL CORALS. 



CHAPTER XV. 



CORALS FROM THE DEVONIAN FORMATION. 



The British Corals appertaining to the Devonian Formation are in general so completely 

 imbedded and filled up with extraneous calcareous matter, that it is difficult to distinguish 

 them otherwise than by the study of polished sections ; but these usually show their 

 structural characters in a very satisfactory manner, and enable the Palaeontologist to recog- 

 nise their zoological affinities. In France and in Germany the corals belonging to the 

 same geological period are, on the contrary, often met with in an excellent state of preserva- 

 tion, and show all the details of their exterior surface, as well as the most minute parts of 

 their interior organisation ; but in this Monograph we have only figured British specimens. 

 For the more complete representation of some species, we must consequently refer to 

 other works, such as the excellent publication of ' Goldfuss on the German fossils,' and 

 our Monographie des polypiers des terr. Palaozoiques. The corals discovered in the 

 Devonian Formation, in the different parts of the world, belong to about ] 50 well-defined 

 species, 46 of which have been met with in England. To these British corals may be 

 added 3 species that are very imperfectly known, casts only of them having been as yet 

 found, and few specimens that have received names, but are not determinable zoologically. 

 Almost half of the British species have not as yet been found in other countries ; 22 have 

 been discovered on the Continent ; and we may also remark that most of the American 

 species are not seen here, only 6 of the latter have been met with in England ; among 

 these, 5 are at the same time Continental, The corals belonging to the family of the 

 Cyathophyllidae are very predominant, and form 33 of the 46 above-mentioned species. 

 The family of Favositidae is represented by 10 species, and the three remaining species 

 belong one to each of the three families Stauridae, Milleporidse, and Poritidae ; with the 

 exception of one species of Poritidae that we have not seen, all these fossils belong, therefore, 

 to the two sub-orders Zoantharia tahulaia and Zoantharia rugom, one of which has no 



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