22 THE FOSSIL COEALS AND 



Eocene ages ; and four fragments of a corallum, or of similar coralla, were found in the 

 Laki range. 



1. Ehabdophyllia Baekii, Duncan. Plate I, Figs. 24-28. 



The corallites are short, compressed, often bent, and marked transversely by con- 

 tractions and enlargements ; and the costse are wide apart, narrow, projecting, granular, 

 and long. The intercostal spaces are wide, minutely granular, and often contain a small 

 costa. The wall is thin, and the calice is longer than broad or irregularly shaped. The 

 septa are long and slender, and the higher orders are very small. Each costa at the cali- 

 cular margin corresponds with a septum ; and the smallest septa arise from an intercostal 

 space or from a new and rudimentary costa. The full number of septa is 48 ; but the 

 third cycle is not always completed. 



The columella occupies some space, and is made up of lax and distant trabeculae 

 connected with the ends of the septa. The septa are not over straight, and the larger 

 are rather distant. The endotheca is extremely scanty. 



Length of largest piece -iq inch. 



Breadth of calice i%, and length nearly i% inch. 



Locality. Barki nala, north of Eanikot, Laki range. Survey-number G fff • 



Illustrations of the Species in Plate I. 

 Fig. 24. A fractured part : magnified. 



25 & 26. Specimens, side view: natural size. 



27. A calice : magnified. 



28. Costae: magnified. 



Gro-wp MADEEPORAEIA PEEFORATA, Milne-Edwards i^ Jules Haime, 1850. 



Family POMTIBM, M. Ed. & J. Haime, Hist. Nat. des Corall. vol. iii. p. 89. 



Genus LITHAE^EA, M. Ed. & Haime. 



Astrsea (pars), Defrance ; Goldfuss ; Michelin. 



Litharaea, M. Ed. Sf J. Haime, Oompt. Bendus, t. xxix. p. 258 (1849) ; Monogr. des Poritides, p. 35. 



Siderastrsea (pars), Lonsdale. 



This genus has the walls between the close corallites perforate or made up of 

 trabeculge instead of a solid plate, as in the genus Isastrosa for instance ; consequently 

 in some places, in every species and generally in most, a good amount of reticulate 

 tissue exists on the surface between the margins of the polygonal calices. The septa 

 where they spring from the wall, are more or less perforate \ but elsewhere they are 

 thin, solid plates, some of which reach the columella. The calices are never very deep 

 and their centre is filled up by the top of the columella, which is composed of lax 

 trabeculse, continuous with the septal ends. The distinguished authors of the genus 

 consider that there is a thin or a rudimentary epitheca present ; and they introduce 



into the generic diagnosis some points which are more specific than generic such as 



the statement that there are usually three cycles of septa, and that the upper edge of 

 the septa is deeply crenulate. 



