•38 PERMIAN FOSSILS. 



The Russian Coral which Mr.. Lonsdale has identified with Fenestella retiformis 

 appears to be a distinct species, that is, if the cellules on its branches are really tri- 

 serially arranged, and the connecting processes " occasionally cellular ;" as I have 

 never yet found any British specimens displaying a tendency to become so far modified. 

 Several specimens which I collected at Konitz differ in no respect from a variety, 

 occurring at Humbleton, with frequently dividing branches, and the cellules rather 

 wider apart than usual. Quenstedt appears to have been the first to identify the 

 British Coral with Schlotheim's Keratophytes retiformis} 



This species is rather abundant in the Magnesian Limestone at Humbleton Quarry, 

 Ryhope Field-house Farm, Dalton-le-Dale, and Hylton North-Farm ; it occurs sparingly 

 at Tunstall Hill and Castle Eden Dene. Mr. Hogg probably alluded to this species, 

 when noticing the occurrence in the last locality of a " coralloid resembling Gorgonia 

 flabellum." At Tynemouth I procured a small specimen imbedded in the Breccia. 

 Professor Sedgwick records a specimen which he found " in the beds of Blue Limestone 

 at Nosterfield, near Tanfield."^ It occurs at several localities in Germany. The first 

 published specimen, which is noticed by Schlotheim in the ' Taschenbuch,' p. 55, was 

 found in the Kupferschiefer of Schmerbach. The other German localities, as recorded 

 l)y Von Dechen, Geinitz, Goldfuss, and Schlotheim, are Altenburg, Konitz, Liebenstein, 

 and Gliicksbrunn, in the Zechstein-Dolomite ; Corbusen and Milbitz in the Lower 

 Zechstein. 



Genus Spiocladia, King, 1849. 



Retepoea (vikgulacea), Phillips. 

 Gorgonia (dubia = vikgulacea), Morris. 

 Fenestella (virgulacea), Lonsdale. 



Diagnosis. — "A foliaceous or frondiferous infundibuliform Fenestellidia. Fronds 

 consisting of numerous connected stems or ribs. Stems bifurcating ; radiating from a 

 small root ; running parallel to, and at a short distance from each other, on one plane ; 

 and giving off bilaterally numerous short, simple branches, of which opposite pairs 

 conjoin midway between the stems arcuately or at an ascending angle. Branches 

 occasionally modified into stems. Cellules on the inner or upper surface of the fronds ; 

 on both stems and branches ; imbricated ; and distributed in longitudinal series. Series 

 of cellules separated from each other by a dividing ridge."^ (?) Gemmuliferous vesicles 

 on the dividing ridges. 



Type, Betepora virgulacea, Phillips. 



Synocladia differs from all other Fenestellidias in the character of the branches or 



^ Wiegmann's Archiv, 1835, p. 91. 



^ Trans. Geol. Soc. London, 2d series, vol. iii, p. 120. 



' Vide Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 2d series, vol. iii, pp. 388, 389. 



