180 R. F. TOMES ON THE STRATIGRAPHY OF THE 



in the Marlsfcone of the Middle Lias. Some of these are here de- 

 scribed, and they are specially interesting as showing a fades quite 

 distinct from that of the Lower-Lias Corals. I am not aware that 

 any of the Fungidce have hitherto been discovered in the Lias of this 

 country. Three genera of these, however, I have met with, and 

 they will be described in their proper places. Throughout the paper 

 no classification is introduced other than that of commencing with the 

 older forms, and proceeding in successive order to the more recent, and 

 the division of the species into the families Astreidse and Fungidee. 



As this communication is professedly a record of observations made 

 in the field rather than an expression of opinion of the works of 

 others, I confine my notice of the corals from the Brocastle, Sutton, 

 and Dunraven Lias, in South Wales, within the limits of this intro- 

 ductory part. Their stratigraphical position has been so often 

 discussed that little more need be said about them ; and I shall 

 therefore only notice the several papers which have been written on 

 these deposits. The first was by myself, and appeared in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Meld Club ' in 1863. In it 

 I ventured the opinion that the Bliaetic formation is there repre- 

 sented by an interval during which no deposit of earthy matter took 

 place, and that the Khsetic fauna of that period became in this 

 manner mixed up with that of the true Lias, which was subsequently 

 deposited. Three years afterwards, in 1866, Mr. Tawney published, 

 in the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,' a paper on the 

 Rhsetic beds and Sutton Stone of South Wales, in which a much 

 fuller Rhgetic interpretation was given to these deposits. In the 

 following year, 1867, appeared in quick succession papers by Dr. 

 Duncan, Mr. Bristow, Mr. C. Moore, and Mr. Tate, all of whom may 

 be said to have advanced anti-Rhaetic opinions. They are chiefly 

 of opinion that these deposits are true Lias, and referable to the zone 

 of Ammonites angulatus. Of this I must confess that I am not yet 

 fully convinced ; but should that prove to be the correct interpre- 

 tation, the coral fauna of that zone, taking into account all the 

 known localities, will be a most remarkable one, not merely from 

 the number of species, but also from the great diversity of forms 

 which they exhibit. The species which I obtained at Brocastle and 

 from the Sutton stone in 1863 were the following : — Thecosmilia 

 rugosa, T. dentata, Cyatlwcoenia incrustans, C. dendroides, Astrocoenia 

 parasitica, A. superba, A. minuta, A. insignis, A. costata, A. gibbosa, 

 Isastrcea globosa, I. sinemuriensis, Septastrcea eoccavata, EVgsastroea 

 Fisclwri, E. Moorei, and Montlivaltia pedunculata. These have been 

 described by Dr. Duncan in the volume of the Paleeontographical 

 Society for 1867; and by means of his descriptions and figures I have 

 been enabled to make out the foregoing list. 



List of Species. 

 Fam. Astreid^e. 

 Montlivaltia rhjsttca, n. s. 



Since the appearance of Dr. Duncan's ' Supplement to the British 



