520 LONSDALE ON EOCENE CORALS FROM N. AMERICA. 



the structure of the lamellae near the circumference, which indicated 

 something more than specific differences from figured Caryophylliae, 

 and apparently demanded the suggesting of a new genus. It 

 was, however, deemed right not to venture so far, on the limited 

 amount of information supplied by the specimen, but to leave to 

 other better provided observers, who could determine the full 

 characters of the coral, the assigning a proper generic appellation. 



The single specimen, a cast, was about an inch in height and 

 four lines in diameter, and consisted of a cylindrical stem (partially 

 removed in the figure) with portions of three branches. The main 

 stem had been composed of numerous lamellae, partly united in the 

 centre without any distinct structure, and greatly subdivided or 

 reticulated near the circumference. The original wall was appa- 

 rently very thin except at the divergence of the branches, and its 

 general porous structure was proved by transverse filiform pro- 

 cesses, or their fractured extremities on the ridges representing 

 external furrows. The cast of the outer surface exhibited also 

 other signs of minute foramina and reticulations. The branches 

 were essentially composed, at their commencement, of certain of 

 the lamellae of the parent stem, including in the principal example 

 given in the figure some of those which composed the central 

 portion of the latter. The branches, however, differed from those 

 of true Caryophylliae in being of limited dimensions, and not 

 effecting a bifurcation ; also in diverging laterally and suddenly, 

 and in permitting the main stem to be continued perpendicularly 

 upwards. In this respect there was an agreement with the Den- 

 drophyllia of De Blainville ; but in that genus, the branches are 

 not composed of previously existing lamellae, being developed from 

 germs. The amount of extension outwards of the branches was 

 not shown. 



Locality. — Shell Bluff. 



8. Madrepora tubulata? 



Branched ; branches irregularly divergent, cylindrical, slender, composed 

 chiefly of long, lamelliferous tubes, springing from the centre, and diverging 

 slightly ; intermediate structure foraminated ; no continuous central tube ; 

 lamellae twelve, six very narrow, and limited in vertical range ; surface termina- 

 tions of tubes small, irregularly distant ; interspaces echinated. 



Astrea tubulata De France ? Die. Sc. Nat. t. 42. p. 384. 

 Astro'ite tubulaire Guettard's Memoires, t. iii. p. 511. pi. 53. 

 f. 1 — 3. (Normandy between Melleraut and Mortagne, also 

 Lisieux.) 



The resemblance of the American fossil to Guettard's figures 

 was considerable, and the description of the latter, so far as it ex- 

 tends, agreed with the structure of the former ; but the details 

 are not sufficiently ample to warrant the conclusion that the 

 fossils are specifically identical. The general structure of the 

 coral, the limitation of the lamellae to 12, and the mode of pro- 

 ducing additional tubes or stars, rendered the removal from the 



