ANIMALS. 27 



Considering that Mr. Lonsdale suspected this Coral to be the same as the Russian 

 Stcnopora spimgera^ it is to be regretted that the identity cannot as yet be satisfactorily 

 made out. There appear to be some points of difference between them, which it may 

 be as well to notice at present, such as the greater number of small interpolated tubes, 

 and the large tubes suddenly bending out towards the surface, in the English Coral : 

 it is probable, however, when better specimens of the Russian form are examined, that 

 these differences will be found not to prevail, at least, to the extent alleged. 



There can be little doubt that some of the specimens figured by Geinitz, in the 

 ' Versteinerungen,' as Sfenopora Mackrothii are specifically identical with the English 

 Coral under consideration, particularly the one under figure 10, a, b, pi. vii; and this 

 is strongly suspected to be the case with those figured and described under the name 

 of Coscinium dubium (vide Op. cit. p. 19, pi. vii, figs. 24-7) ; but the specimens given 

 under figures 8 and 9 of the same plate appear to belong to a different species, the one 

 hereafter named Stenopora columnaris. 



I formerly considered this Coral to belong to the genus Stenopora ; but its mural 

 foramina and transverse plates (vide PI. Ill, fig. 6, a, b), as displayed in a beautiful 

 specimen which I have lately procured, prove that it belongs to the genus Calamopora 

 of Goldfuss. These plates are concave superiorly, and separated from each other by a 

 space equal to the width of the tubes. The foramina generally run in perpendicular 

 rows, the continuity of which is broken by the transverse plates. 



The Coral appears to have been small and variable in form, sometimes simple, but 

 generally with two, three, or more branches. The margin of the tube-apertures is 

 furnished with from five to eight spine-like tubercles, apparently hollow. The inter- 

 spaces between the apertures are generally small, through the close approximation of 

 the tubes, or the interpolation of new ones. The tubes are for the most part long, running 

 up the axis for a considerable extent, and afterwards suddenly curving out to the 

 surface : new tubes spring from the outside of old ones : they are often transversely 

 wrinkled or contracted, the contractions being parallel to the surface at whatever 

 inclination the tubes are to the plane of the axis of the branches. 



A large dendritic Coral, from the Carboniferous Limestone of Northumberland, 

 occasionally measuring nine inches long, and apparently of this genus, has a structure 

 agreeing with that of the present species. Its tubes are furnished with numerous trans- 

 verse plates : their walls are foraminiferous ; and they are marginated with tubercles ; 

 but the transverse plates do not extend to the centre of the tubes ; generally little more 

 than half way ; the centre is consequently open, at least in the upper part of the tubes, 

 but lower down it becomes closed. 



De Koninck's Favosites scabra seems to be a closely allied form ; and perhaps the 

 Russian Coral which Kutorga has identified with the Ceriopora niilleporacea of Goldfuss 

 is the same species. 



^ Geology of Russia and the Ural Mountains, vol. i, Appendix A, p. 632. 



