496 



LONSDALE ON MIOCENE CORALS FROM N. AMERICA. 



Anthopliyllum lineatum. Near 

 the base of the stem, at a, the 

 free edge of an imperfect con- 

 necting plate is given. § 

 [Natural Size.] 



which Ehrenberg has beneficially restricted that genus* ; but it 

 agrees with certain of Schweigger's 

 Anthophylla^, in having the stems 

 connected by intermediate layers, or 

 those to which Ehrenberg has ad- 

 vantageously limited the genus. \ 



A comparison of the American 

 specimens with a fine series of a 

 Touraine coral in Mr. Lyell's cabinet, 

 believed to be that figured and de- 

 scribed by M. Michelin, led to the 

 inference, that there was no essential 

 difference ; nevertheless it has been 

 thought advisable to adopt Mr. Con- 

 rad's specific name, lest a student 

 should consider the American or 

 Touraine fossil as identical with the existing Caryophyllia flex- 

 uosa, one of the synonymes given in the " Iconographie Zoophy- 

 tologique." 



The stems were generally attached to testacea, and for the 

 greater part were closely aggregated, the young being occasionally 

 clustered round the sides of the older. They were frequently 

 cj^lindrical, but sometimes conical, and differed considerably in the 

 diameter of the superior termination in instances of equal altitude. 

 The greatest height was 5 lines, and the greatest diameter of 

 the same stem 4^ lines. The sides of the coral, and the ad- 

 jacent surfaces of the bodies to which it was attached, were 

 coated by a thin layer of animal secretion, indicating that the 

 mantle of the polype or its appendages invested the solid polypidom 

 and in part the supporting body ; but free connecting layers were 

 not so strongly developed as in many of the Touraine specimens 

 of equal dimensions, though probably of greater age. 



The young stems were essentially produced from germs, ori- 

 ginated in the investing portions of the polype, and sprung either 

 from the sides of the older, but without any connection with their 

 interior, or from near the base ; and they soon attained their 

 full diameter. One terminal cup presented irregularities not 

 unlike those which accompany the subdivisions of Dcedalince, but 

 the evidence was not sufficient, when opposed by very numerous 

 cases in which germs appeared to be the ordinary mode of repro- 

 duction, to warrant the inference that the coral was a true subdi- 

 visional polypidom. 



Localities. — Petersburg, "Williamsburg. 



* Die Corallenthiere des rothen Meeres, 1834. and Berlin Trans. 1832. 



f Op. cit. Tahle VI. 



\ Op. cit. p. 89. Ehrenherg's characters are, " tubuli laminis membranaceis 

 (palii appendicibus) laxe ferruminati, ramosi, in interstitiis (stolonibus) gemmipari. 



§ For an analogous mode of grouping in a recent species, consult Esper's 

 figure (Pflanzenthiere, Madrep. Tab. 28.) of Ehrenherg's AnthophyUum fasci- 

 culare, the A. Esperi of Schweigger. 



