GENERA OF FAVOSITID^E. 115 



are placed at short intervals. Where their walls are in contact, 

 their visceral chambers are placed in communication by means 

 of mural pores. Tabula; complete, remote, apparently not dis- 

 tinctly infundibuliform. Septa represented by vertical rows of 

 spinules. 



Obs. — The type of this genus is the singular coral described 

 by Billings under the name of Aulopora umbcllifcra (fig. 19), 

 from the Corniferous Limestone of North Am- 

 erica. It was provisionally left by Billings, and 

 subsequently by myself, in the genus Atilopora, 

 upon the ground that its internal structure was 

 imperfectly known, but both of us stated that 

 it would probably prove to be the type of a new 

 genus. At a later date Dr Rominger succeeded 

 in establishing the important fact that mural ^^'s- i9- — Portion 



, , . , , , of the coralluni of 



pores are present m this species, and he there- Romingcria n,,,- 

 fore properly removed it to the family of the ''f^J^i-a, Biii. sp., 



^ "^ ^ from the Corni- 



Favositidcs, and raised it to the rank of a genus ferous Limestone 

 under the name of Quenstedtia. This designation naturai^siz'e ° 

 would of course have been retained by me but 

 for the fact that it has, unfortunately, been employed as early 

 as 1854, by Morris and Lycett, for a genus of Lamellibranchiate 

 Molluscs. Under these circumstances, I have great pleasure in 

 proposing for the genus the title Romingeria, in honour of one 

 who has so largely contributed to the elucidation of the fossil 

 corals of North America. 



In many respects Romingeria is a type of special interest, as 

 affording us a transitional link between the families of the Favo- 

 sitidcs and the Syringoporido'. It differs from Aitlopora, to which 

 it was originally referred, by its erect mode of growth, in the 

 disposition of the branches (as a rule) in successive verticils, and 

 more especially in its perforate walls. In general habit it does 

 not differ much from some species of Syringopora ; and if we 

 imagine its mural pores to be converted into hollow connecting 

 processes, it would be difficult or impossible to separate it from 

 this genus. The existence, however, of mural pores, as first 



