ALCYONAKIA OF SIND. 25 



List of the Species of Madreporaria from the beds with Cardita Beaumonti at Jakhmari, 

 at Barki nala, north of Eanikot, and at Barah, in the Laki range. 



1. CaryopTiyllia com/pressa, Duncan. 



2. CaryophylUa Indica, 



3. CaryopJiyllia Feddeni, 



4. Trochocyathus LaJcii, 



5. Smilotrochus Jakhmari, 



6. Smilotrochus Blanfordi, 



7. Bhahdophyllia Barkii, 



8. Litharcea epithecata, Duncan, and a variety. 



9. Stylophora, sp. 



Of these corals the most numerous are the Litharoece, and the species is evidently 

 a most characteristic form. The CaryophyllicB are next in importance, and then the 

 Smilotrochi. 



Taken as a fauna, this assemblage of species does not indicate the conditions of a 

 reef sufficient to form a coral-limestone. The forms were not massive, and the Litharcea 

 was epithecate and covered a very small area. A shallow-sea formation, where the 

 corals Jived under not very favourable conditions, occurred. 



With regard to the alliance of the corals with those of other strata and formations, 

 but little can be determined. There are no characteristic Secondary or Tertiary forms 

 present. The range of the genus Caryophyllia is from the Cretaceous to the present 

 day, and the new species do not belong to the deep-sea group of the European Chalk. 

 The genus Smilotrochus was most common in the Upper Greensand and Gault of 

 Europe; but it lasted on into the Nummulitic, and may be still represented. The 

 Smilotrochi have thus as great Nummulitic as Cretaceous affinities. The Litharcea has 

 affinities with an Upper Cretaceous form, but the genus had a great Tertiary range. 



As a whole, the facies of the fauna is more Eocene than Cretaceous ; and it is 

 impossible to give a geological position, so far as age is concerned, to the group of 

 forms from this limited palaeontology. There is a remarkable similarity of outline, 

 figure, and of special shapes of certain species in the coral-faunas of the Cretaceous and 

 Eocene ages ; and from the appearance of the Stylophora and the Smilotrochus Blan- 

 fordi, so greatly resembling Smilotrochus incurvus, D'Achiardi, of the Italian Eocene, 

 an Eocene facies rather predominates. 



There are numerous Caryophyllice in the Cretaceous deposits of Southern India, 

 and they were described by Stoliczka in his Monograph of the Cretaceous fauna of 

 Southern India (Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, 1873) ; but they are only 

 generically allied to those from the Cardita-Beaumonti beds of Sind. They come from 

 strata of Lower Cretaceous age, and there were several genera present which are only 

 known as Tertiary in Europe or recent. In the fauna now under consideration a 

 transition from the Cretaceous to the Eocene is fairly indicated. 



