44 BRITISH FOSSIL CORALS. 



CHAPTER III. 



CORALS OF THE UPPER CHALK. 



The fossil Corals found in the Upper Chalk of England are not numerous ; they 

 belong principally to the section of simple Eusmilinae, and appear to be peculiar to the 

 British Fauna. One species, it is true (the Parasmilia centralis), has been mentioned by 

 different geologists as existing also in the Chalk of Beauvais and in the north-west of 

 Germany, but we have great reason to think that these fossils are not specifically identical. 

 It is also worthy of notice, that even no species corresponding to those met with among 

 the Corals of the Upper Chalk of England have as yet been seen in the Chalk of Meudon, 

 and that a great difference exists between the predominant generical forms in the first of 

 these formations, and in the Chalk of Maestricht. In the latter some Cyathininge nearly 

 allied to that of England are met with ; but the Diploctenium, the Cyclolites, and the 

 aggregate Astreidse of Maestricht are represented by no corresponding forms in this part of 

 the British fossil Fauna, and the organic remains found in these two cretaceous deposits 

 have consequently a very different aspect. We must add, that the fossil Corals of the Chalk 

 of Faxoe are equally distinct from the British species, and that none of the latter have 

 been met with in the Lower Chalk Formations of England. 



Order ZOANTHAEIA (p. ix). 



Family TURBINOLID^E (p. xi). 



Tribe CYATHININJE (p. xii). 



Genus Cyathina (p. xii). 

 Cyathina laevigata. Tab. IX, figs. 1, la, 16, 1c, Id. 



Cyathina laevigata, Milne Edwards and J. Haime, Monogr. des Turbinolides ; Ann. des Sc. 

 Nat., 3 me serie, vol. ix, p. 290, 1848. 



Monocarya centralis (pars), Lonsdale, in Dixon's unpublished work on the Chalk Forma- 

 tions and Tertiary Deposits of Sussex, tab. xviii, figs. 12, 12a, 

 (perhaps also fig. 5, but not the other figures bearing the 

 same name, which are Parasmilia and probably Ccelosmilia) . 



Corallum simple, elongated, adherent, cylindro-turbinate, straight, and in general 

 much contracted just above the basis, which is broad. Walls quite smooth, and polished 



