122 BRITISH FOSSIL CORALS. 



Genus Comoseris.^ 



COMOSERIS VERMICULARIS, Tab. XXIV, fig. 1. 



Meandrina vermicularis, M'Coy, Ann. of Nat. Hist,, s. ii, v. ii, p. 402, 1848. 

 Corallmi composite, massive, convex ; its upper surface overrun with strong, cristate, 

 sharp ridges, which are very flexuous, somewhat ramified, and closely set. The septal 

 laminae, which are very thin and crowded together, ascend parallel to the top of these 

 ridges, where a delicate mural line is visible : about ten of these laminse are comprised 

 in the space of one line, and they vary a little in size alternately. The depressions 

 situated between these ridges are rather deep, but not very broad ; so that when the struc- 

 ture of the corallum is hidden by incrustations of extraneous matter, the general aspect 

 of the fossil resembles very much that of Meandrina. But in well-preserved specimens, 

 it is easy to see that the above-mentioned depressions contain a series of distinct calices, 

 with confluent septa, but separate, well-defined fossulge. Each calice has twelve septa 

 which are closely set, slightly denticulated along their edge, and somewhat thickened 

 towards the middle. In the corallites that are situated at the bottom of the depressions, 

 most of the septa follow the general direction of these furrows ; but in those situated nearer 

 to the top of the ridges, the septa become almost all perpendicular to the common mural 

 lines ; some of them, however, are always more or less curved. Diameter of the calices, 

 about one line ; breadth of the depressions, two or three lines. 



We have seen only two specimens of this species ; one was found in the Great Oolite 

 near Bath, by Mr. Lonsdale, and given by that Palaeontologist to the Geological Society's 

 collection ; the other belongs to the Cambridge Museum, and was found in the Inferior 

 Oolite at Leckhampton. 



C. vermicularis differs from the other two species of the same genus above described," 

 by the form of its sharp edged ridges, and its thin, closely set septa. 



"Family PORITID^E, (p. Iv.) 

 Genus Microsolena, (p. Ivi.) 

 1. Microsolena regularis. Tab. XXV, figs. 6, Ota, Q>b. 



Alveopoka microsolena, M'Coy, Ann. of Nat. Hist., s. ii, v. ii, p. 419, 1848. 

 Corallum massive, subturbinate or lobulated, and more or less convex. The English 



^ See page 101. 



2 C. irradians, tab. xix, fig. 1., and C. meandrinoides, D'Orbigny, loc. cit. 



