34 
hollowed out towards the centre. The rays composing the star, and 
which converge from the edge towards the centre, are dentated and 
are of two orders ; the larger being placed alternately with the smaller. 
The representation, Plate IV. Fig. 6, yields a very correct idea of the 
appearance presented by the disk of this fossil. 
Whilst examining the various specimens of fossil madrepores in my 
possession, I was very much struck with the beautiful appearance of 
the turbinated madreporite from Sweden, which is figured Plate IV. 
Fig. 11; and particularly observed, that the rays had an appearance 
totally different from those of any other which I had noticed. The 
form of this madreporite places it indubitably among the turbinated 
madrepores ; it gradually narrowing and terminating in a curved 
pedicle. Innumerable strife, which are intersected by horizontal ridges 
and depressions, most closely and neatly arranged, mark the whole of 
its inferior surface. 
The disk derives a rich appearance from the perpendicular radiating 
laminae which form the star, being arranged alternately in a larger and 
smaller size, and being also closely beset with rounded annular pro- 
tuberances ; the whole of the superior part of the coral bearing an exact 
resemblance to the disk of the porpital madrepore. Indeed, so exactly 
does it resemble this fossil, that I feel no hesitation in considering them 
as being both of the same species ; and as differing from each other only 
in their having undergone the lapidifying process at different stages of 
their growth. Nor do I perceive in the porpital madrepore the least 
reason for doubting that it possessed a pedicle of the same kind with the 
larger specimen ; but being proportionably less, it must have been so 
much more liable to be removed. 
The celebrated Linnfeus has considered the absence of a pedicle in 
this madrepore as one of its first specific characters. It is considered 
and described, both by Buttner and by Bromell, as the head or 
top of some small marine fungus: neither of them having discovered 
any remains of a pedicle by which it could have been attached to 
