428 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



considered to be a true Tubuliporidcea, its habits may likewise be 

 inferred : and the three last are well-known genera belonging to 

 Bryozoa. The ascertained lamelliferous Anthozoa of the Mediter- 

 ranean exhibit, when tabulated, a marked character, consisting 

 almost wholly of simple or ramose groups, not numerous in genera 

 or species, though abundant in specimens, and occasionally of 

 ample growth, with very diminutive representatives either in 

 number or size of the great Meandrince, Madrepores, Astrece, 

 Porites, and numerous allied genera which swarm in the Red Sea, 

 the Bermudas, the West Indies, and the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 

 A perfect distinction, as a whole, may therefore be stated to exist 

 between the Polyparia of the Mediterranean and those of southern 

 seas ; while in more northern regions there are representatives, 

 very limited as to species, of the simple and ramose polypidoms of 

 the Mediterranean. 



" On attempting to compare the miocene fossil Anthozoa of Vir- 

 ginia with those of the Mediterranean, it will be found that the 

 Anthophyllum has no generic representative, all the existing 

 species, as restricted by Ehrenberg, belonging to the Red Sea and 

 Indian Ocean ; and if the fossil specimens be regarded as young, 

 their dimensions are not inferior to those of A. musicale in the 

 same stage of developement — that the Astrea has an equivalent 

 in the Astrea mediterranea of M. Risso, or in a Porites discovered 

 by Prof. E. Forbes ; but the Columnaria, an abundant coral, 

 exhibits dimensions allied to those of analogous genera of warmer 

 seas. Again, as respects the Heteropora, Celleporce, and Escha- 

 rina, no satisfactory inference can be formed regarding climate, 

 Tubuliporidece and similar Celleporidece being universally dis- 

 tributed ; but Lunulites have been found only in the Mediterranean 

 and more southern latitudes. The comparison, therefore, would 

 lead to the inference, that a climate rather exceeding the one 

 which prevails nearly throughout the Mediterranean existed in 

 the region where these fossils lived ; and it must be borne in 

 mind, that, as in plants so in corals, size cannot be assumed as the 

 sole indication of temperature, but the abundant developement of 

 species of peculiar genera and families, whether the first be of 

 large or small dimensions. 



"It is desirable next to allude briefly to the relative geological 

 position of the Virginia deposit as respects some European miocene 

 accumulations, to the extent which each may appear to justify a 

 comparison. The formations referred to are the crag of England, 

 the faluns of Touraine, the deposits near Bordeaux and Dax ; and 

 the characters of the Anthozoa in each district will be again con- 

 sidered as the principal test of temperature. The crag, according 

 to Mr. S. Wood's extensive list*, contains only four species of 

 lamelliferous Polyparia, with two Lunulites and one Orbitulites, the 

 first including a Fungia, a Turbinolia, and two corals, believed to 

 be allied to genera living in the Mediterranean : one of the 



* Annals of Nat. Hist. January, 1844. 



