^ , ,, BEYOZOA. 327 



Anolotichla impoUta.l 



Type: A. ponderosa Ulrich, Hudson River group, Wilmington, Illinois. 



Only two species, the type and the one next described, are as yet known of this 

 remarkable genus. Aside from the lunarial tubuli, which constitute the principal 

 distinctive character, the genus corresponds rather closely on the one hand, through 

 A. impolita, with Crepipora, and fully as well on the other, through A. ponderosa 

 with Chiloporella. In the absence of any positive knowledge concerning the functions 

 and classificatory value of the lunarial tubuli, the relationships noted must provis- 

 ionally determine the systematic position of Anolotichia as intermediate between 

 those genera. 



Anolotichia impolita Vlrich. 



PLATE XXVIII, FIGS. 15-20. 



Crepipora impolita Uleich, 1886. Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Geol. Nat. Hist. Sur. Mian., p. 77. 



Zoarium large, bushy, consisting of abundantly and irregularly divided solid 

 branches, the latter varying from 5 to over 20 mm. in diameter. At the base the 

 branches may coalesce, and here they are always stronger than at their termina- 

 tions. Rarely the zoarium is not branched but occurs as an irregular mass with 

 lobe-like excrescences. Zooecia large, with moderately thin walls, direct, hexagonal 

 or subrhomboidal apertures. The latter are subequal (there being no distinguish- 

 able clusters of large ones), are arranged in rather regular series with eleven in 5 mm. 

 Lunarium well developed, appearing as a small crescentic elevation usually in one 

 of the angles. Mesopores few, sometimes appearing to be absent entirely; occa- 

 sionally forming small clusters of from two to six. 



Internal characters: In tangential sections the walls of contiguous zooecia 

 appear to be thoroughly amalgamated; the lunarium is represented by two or three 

 small lucid spots (lunarial tubuli) on one side of the tube, the end ones projecting 

 slightly into its cavity. In vertical sections the tubes are scarcely to be called 

 vertical even in the axial region, curving outward with a uniform curve from the 

 beginning. Their walls are composed of rapidly alternating dark and lighter shades 

 of schlerenchyma, so that they appear more or less distinctly lineate transversely. 

 The cause of these lines, which are closest in the peripheral part of the zoarium, is 

 unknown, unless the light ones, which are of uniform width and, especially in tte 

 axial region, narrower than the dark bands, represent rows of perforations. Exceed- 

 ingly delicate diaphragms, their diameter or more apart, occur chiefly in the outer 

 and middle parts of the tubes. The axial portion of transverse sections is very nearly 

 like tangential, the only difference being that the walls are a little thinner and 

 small tubes comparatively more abundant. 



