AND GLYPnASTR.T3A, DUNCAN (1837). 203 



Tracing the subsequent history of the genus, we find that in 

 their great work, ' Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires,' MM. Edwards 

 and Hairae again give nearly the same diagnosis of Septafitrcea * as 

 in the Ann. des Sci. Nat. in 1849. They state that the absence of 

 columella and pali distinguish it from Goniastrcea, and that the 

 genus is from Tertiary rocks. Pour species are again enumerated, 

 but it is very significant that no mention whatever is made of the 

 claim of d'Orbiguy that S. Forhesi and S. suhramosa are synony- 

 mous f. 



De Fromentel, in his ' Introduction a I'etude des Polypiers 

 Fossiles' J, mainly copies the generic and specific descriptions relating 

 to Sejatastrcea from Edwards and Haime's work, but he also intro- 

 duces into the genus three species of Jurassic corals. It should be 

 noticed that the species previously placed in the genus were 

 exclusively of Tertiary origin. These new Mesozoic species, as will 

 be shown in the sequel, have no generic afiinity with the Tertiary 

 type-forms of d'Orbigny and Edwards and Haime. 



Prof. P. B. Meek§, in 1864, placed in Septastrcm\, but with a 

 query, the Columnaria (?) sexradiata, Lonsdale, and with it the 

 S. Forhesi, E. & H., as corals occurring in the Miocene strata of 

 North America. As no mention is made of the nominal S. suh- 

 ramosa., d'Orbigny, which came from Virginia, it is probable that 

 this author did not recognize the validity of the species-name, and 

 accepted in its stead S. Forhesi. 



Prof. P. M. Duncan, in the * Supplement to the British Fossil 

 Corals ' (1867), does not give a diagnosis of the genus, but refers to 

 that of Edwards and Haime, and says || : — " The genus Septastrcea 

 resembles Isastrcea ; but there is fissiparous growth in the calicos of 

 the first, and never in the calices of the last-named genus. The 

 peculiar calicinal gemmation of Isastrcea never produces septa which 

 crossing the calice divide it off into separate individuals. The 

 walls of Septastrcea are not so perfectly united as in Isastrcea. 

 The genus is found in the Lias and in the Tertiary Coral-fauna." 



This author further places in the genus three new species from 

 the Lias of this country, and also retains one previously described 

 by Promentel. It will be shown that these species are not con- 

 generic with the Septastrcea of Edwards and Haime, and that the 

 generic characters given above are not supported by an examination 

 of the typical species of these authors. 



Later writers on corals appear to have accepted the definition of 

 Septastrcea given by d'Orbigny, without particular comment. Thus 

 Quenstedt % states that it occurs only in Tertiary strata ; and Prof. 

 V. Zittel ** that it is similar to Goniastrcea, except that it does not 



* Vol. ii. (1857). p. 449. 



t Similarly, this fact is also unnoticed in the paper by Prof. P. M. Duncan. 

 + (1861) p. 174. 



§ " Check List of Invertebrate Fossils of North America, Miocene." Washing- 

 ton, Smithsonian Institution, p. 1. 

 I! Pal. Soc. pt, iv. pp. 5, 6(1867). 

 t Petrefacten Deutschl. Heft vi. 1878. p. 1015. 

 ** Handb. der Pal. vol. i. 1879, p. 254. 



p2 



