GENERA OF FA VOSITIDM. 43 



one prolifero," as indicating the structure of the tabulce. Gold- 

 fuss himself, however, in the vernacular description which 

 follows the brief Latin diagnosis, confesses that " nur bei einer 

 Art erscheinen sie " (the tabula:) " als trichterformige Prolifera- 

 tion eines Sipho." The one species to which he alludes is his 

 Calamopora iiifii?idibulifera, which is in all its characters very 

 distinct from the older genus Favosites of Lamarck, and which 

 is only very doubtfully referable to the family of the Favositidcs 

 at all, since it has never been proved to possess mural pores. 

 Nor can it even be asserted that the tabulse in this type spring 

 from or form an actual central tube or " siphon " — they simply 

 appear to be funnel-shaped and invaginated. Considering, 

 then, that all the other species included by Goldfuss under 

 Calamopora are undoubtedly destitute of the median siphon 

 implied by this generic name, and that most of them are clearly 

 identical with the forms previously designated Favosites by 

 Lamarck, it does not appear that there is the slightest ground 

 for the course adopted by some of the most distinguished of 

 living German palseontologists, who still regard Favosites, 

 Lam., as a mere synonym of Cala^nopora, Gold. 



I shall have occasion, however, to point out subsequently 

 that there really does exist a coral {Syringolites, Hinde) which 

 actually possesses the median tube imagined by Goldfuss to 

 be present in his Calamopora, and for which, therefore, this 

 name might be retained, if it were at all advisable to try and 

 revive a genus founded upon so many forms of different affin- 

 ities. The coral in question, however, in no way agrees with 

 any of the forms included by Goldfuss under the head of Cala- 

 tnopora — not even with C infuudibidifei'a, now known as 

 Rcemeria inftindibiilifera ; and it is fully entitled to receive the 

 new generic designation Syringolites, Hinde, under which name 

 I shall briefly describe it later on. 



Of the other genera of the Favositidcs, Alveolites, Lam., 

 Pachypora, Lindst., and Striatopora, Hall, are probably those 

 which are most difficult to separate from Favosites proper. 

 Palaeontologists have recently shown a tendency to suppress 



