204 
of f^rowth.” Ill most of the specimens we have examined (except S. Howsii) the surface 
is so hadiv preserved that the characters of the mouths of tlie tubes could not be 
accurately determined, and in some (such as 8. ovata, Lonsd.), where the preservation ot 
the surface was better, we have not been able to recognize any such closure ot the 
mouths of the tubes. In one of the figures,* however, which Lonsdale pves ot 8. 
tasmaniensis, the sti-ucture in question is well shown, and it corresponds entirely with 
what is seen in portions of the surface of (S'. Howsii, where it is undoubtedly the resul 
of the existence of perforated tabiilse. We have ourselves observed the same structure in 
a single specimen of (S'. 
Loc. and Horizon. Coral Creek, Bowen Eiver (J2. L. Joel;)— Middle or Marine 
Series, Bowen River Coal I’ield. 
Stejtopoba Leicuhabdtii, Nicholson and Hth.fil., PI. 6, figs. 9 and 10 ; PI. 7, fig. 2. 
Stcropora LciMardtu, Nioh. and Kth. Bl., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1886, xvii., p. 179, t. 3, figs. 7 and 8. 
Sp. Char. Coralliim dendroid, of cylindrical branching stems, which vary in 
diameter from less than a centimetre up to one and a-half centimetre. The corallites in 
the centre of the branches are nearly vertical, with comparatively thm walls, and 
iiolvgonal in shape. In the peripheral region of the corallum, the corallites bend 
outwards nearly at right angles to the axis, the walls becoming thickened and being 
entirely fused with one another, while the visceral chambers becoine oval or rounded. 
The periodical thickenings of the walls of the tubes in the final portions of their course 
are mostly long and fusiform, and are generally placed at corresponding levels in 
contio-uous corallites. The average diameter of the corallites is about one-fourth o a 
millimetre. In the walls of the corallites, in the peripheral region, acanthopores are 
developed in great numbers, their shape being usually oval or subangular, their size 
large, and their walls not specially, or only slightly, thickened. Tabulm are very 
sparingly developed, and are only occasionally to be recogni.sed at all. 
Ols. In its general form this species closely resembles 8. ovata, Lonsd., an 
the typical' examples of 8. tasmaniensis, Lonsd. Prom these two species, however, the 
present form is distinguished, among other characters, by the extraordinary abundance 
and large size of the acanthopores. 8. Howsii, Nichi, has also very numerous aeautho- 
pores, but these are for the most part very minute, and the annular thickenings ot the 
wall are quite different, while the tabulm are very numerous, and are perforated, me 
acanthopores are best seen in tangential sections (PI. 0, fig. 9), but they are 
exhibited in sections of the peripheral region of the corallum, cutting the coralli 
longitudinally, in which they appear as delicate clear tubes running in the thickene 
walls of the corallites (PI. 6, fig. 10). Tabiilte arc often not to be detected, and wHe 
present are very few in number. In tangential sections appearances are occasionally 
to be detected, which may perhaps be caused by the existence of perforated 
but as the specimens are in a very peculiar condition of preservation, this canno ’ 
affirmed with certainty. None of our specimens exhibit the surface of the corallu > 
and we therefore do not know if the mouths of the corallites were closed at the n® 
period of growth by the development of a perforated tabula, as seems to have bee 
sometimes the case in 8.' tasmaniensis, Lonsd., and probably in 8. australis, nobis. ^ 
Loc and Horizon. Pelican Creek, half-a-mile above Sonoma Road-crossiOt,) 
Bowen River (R. L. Jacl, and N. -Middle or Marine Series, Bowen Rive 
Coal Field. 
Strzelecki’s Phy(j. De.3crip. N. S. Wale.s, &c., PI. 8, fig. 2fc. 
