P. MARTIN DUNCAN ON SOME NEW-ZEALAND FOSSIL A LCYONARIA. 675 



49. On some Fossil ALCYONARiA/rom the Tertiary Deposits of New 

 Zealand. By Professor P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.li.S., 

 V.-P. Geol. Soc, &c. (Bead June 9, 1875.) 



[Plate XXXVIII. b.] 



Mr. P. W. Hutton, F.G.S., the Curator of the Otago Museum in 

 New Zealand, has forwarded me some specimens from the Awawoa 

 railway- cutting, Oawaru. They are from the upper part of the 

 Oawaru formation, or what Mr. Hutton calls the Trelissic group. 

 He considers the strata to be of that ill-defined age which some 

 geologists term Oligocene, and others Upper Eocene. 



The specimens are badly preserved, and consist of fragments of 

 Isidinae belonging to the genus Isis, and of Corallinae belonging to 

 the genus Corallium. There are no true Corals or Sclerodermic 

 Madreporaria in the collection. 



The calcareous bodies and some of the bases or roots of the Isidinae 

 are amongst the collection; and there are many fragments of a slightly 

 branching species of Corallium. 



IsiDINJE. 



Genus Isis. Plate XXXVIII. b. figs. 1-4. 



1. The calcareous bodies are longer than broad, circular in out- 

 line, slightly constricted ; and the ridges and furrows are distinct. 

 They greatly resemble the specimens described from No. 3 bed, Cape 

 Otway, Victoria, of group 1. (See the last communication.) 



2. The calcareous body (fig. 2) is longer than broad, slightly bent; 

 and the ridges are represented by straight series of long low granules ; 

 the furrows do not exist. This is quite a new form. 



3. A long tapering basal piece (fig. 3), with a base of incrustation. 

 The ridges and furrows are waved and very distinct. 



Coralline. 

 Genus Corallium. 



The specimens are fragmentary. 



Some are with frequently branching furrows and ridges of the surface 

 exceedingly developed and irregular in their distribution. They 

 cannot be associated satisfactorily with any recent or fossil species. 



These Isidinae and Corallinae are dwellers in moderately deep 

 waters ; and both of the subfamilies are represented in the recent 

 Pacific fauna. A comparison between the specimens of Isis from 

 the Upper Cainozoic of Victoria and of those from New Zealand 

 favours the idea of the homotaxis of the two deposits ; but the range 

 in time of the genera prevents the palaeontologist from valuing the 



