CLASSIFICATION. 19 



giving rise to an axial tube in the median line of the visceral 

 cavity. There is no columella. The entire group, so far as 

 known, is confined to the Palaeozoic period. 



It is probably impossible, with our present knowledge, to 

 assign an absolutely final place to the Syri7igoporidcs in the 

 zoological series. I am quite unable to agree with the opinion 

 held by Dana, Haeckel, and Zittel, that the true place of Sy- 

 ringopora and its allies is in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the recent Tubipora ; as I can see nothing but resemblances of 

 an analogical nature between these two genera. Nor can I 

 accept the view advocated by Lindstrom (Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., sen 4, vol. xviii. p. 14), that Syringopor^a is truly a Rugose 

 Coral, with relationships to Lithostrotion and Diphyphylhim. 

 Nor, again, am I at present inclined to admit that the Corals 

 usually grouped together under the generic titles of Atdopora 

 and Cladochoims { = Pyj^gia, E. and H.) are really nothing more 

 than young forms of Syringopora ; though I fully grant that the 

 immature stages of the latter may be undistinguishable from 

 the fully-grown condition of the former. On the contrary, I 

 am upon the whole disposed to think that the real relation- 

 ships of the SyringoporidcE are with the Favositidce, and that 

 they should therefore find a place, though a special one, in 

 the series of the Zoaiitharia Perforata. I regard the con- 

 necting-tubes (when present, as apparently they are not inva- 

 riably) as being the homologues of the " mural pores " of 

 the FavositidcB ; and the curious genus Syringolites, Hinde, 

 which I shall subsequently describe, affords an unquestion- 

 able link between these two groups. This singular type, in 

 fact, possesses the infundibuliform tabular, and even the axial 

 tube, of certain Syringoporidcz, along with the polygonal, 

 contiguous corallites, and the serially-disposed " mural pores," 

 of the Favositida;. The septa of Syri7igopora are furthermore 

 of the spiniform and rudimentary character so distinctive of 

 the Favositidce; and there is no solid reason, so far as I am 

 aware, for regarding them as being really of the nature of the 

 "pseudo-septa" of certain Alcyonarians. 



