184 BRITISH PALAEOZOIC SPONGES. 



77. Verticillipora dubia, M'Coij. 



1844. Synop. Carb. Toss. Ireland, p. 194, pi. xxvii, fig. 12. 



This species is founded on a specimen of incrusting coral or polyzoa. It is 

 placed in the genus Ceriopora, Goldfuss, in ' Morris's Cat. Brit. Foss.,' 2nd ed., 

 p. 120. 



78. Verticillopora palmata, Salter. 



1873. Cat. Cambrian and Silur. Foss. Cambridge, p. 100. 



The original specimen, now in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge, is 

 palmate, with vertical bifurcating branches. The outer surface is smooth. The 

 structure is but very imperfectly preserved, but, judging from thin microscopic 

 sections, it appears to be either a coral or a form of the Stromatoporoidea. 



The specimen is from Wenlock strata at Dudley. 



79. Vioa prisca, M'Coij. 



1855. Brit. Pal. Fossils, p. 260, pi. 1 b, figs. 1, 1 a. 



This species is founded on straight or slightly- curved tubular borings in the 

 shell of a Pterinea, which have no definite resemblance to the undoubted perfora- 

 tion of boring Sponges. Salter states that they are due to an annelid (' Cat. 

 Cambrian and Silur. Foss. Cambridge,' p. 85) ; and their Sponge origin has likewise 

 been called in question by M. P. Fischer (" Recherches sur les Eponges perforantes 

 fossiles," ' Nouv. Archiv. du Mus. d'Histoire Naturelle,' 1868, p. 134). 



The form is placed under the genus Cliona in ' Morris's Catalogue,' 1854, p. 

 27. The figured type, from the Upper Silurian of Malvern, is in the Woodwardian 

 Museum, Cambridge. 



