Review of decent Geological Literahire. 137- 
no interest in the papers read to make any excursion, in 
numbers at least, a great success. Steady work, less ceremony 
and more pages of science would help science greatly at the 
hands of the Lower House. 
REVIEW OF RECENT GEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
Oti the history and character of the genus Septastrea, D^ Orbtgny {i84g^ 
and the Identity of its type sj>ecies ivith that of Gj^yvHA&TKKA, Duncan (iSSy.} 
By George Jennings Hinde Ph. D., F. G. S. (Quarterly Journal of the 
Geological Society, May 188S.) — In this paper which like all the pub- 
lished work of the author, presents in brief space, with lucid and con- 
cise statement, the result of laborious investigation that is satisfied with 
nothing short of exhausting the subject in hand, Dr. Hinde shows the 
identity of the genus Glyphastrea of Duncan with the older genus, Sef- 
tastrea of D'Orbigny. 
The genus Septastrea was founded on a species of massive or sub-den- 
droid corals found in the Tertiary deposits of Virginia ; and fi-om the paper 
under review we learn that it was originally described in 1849, in a small 
pamphlet that seems to have had but a limited distribution, since no 
copies of it are to be found in the scientific libraries of London. 
The genus was recognized and described by Messrs, Edward and 
Haime in 1849, and since then, as Dr. Hinde very clearly shows, it has 
had a recognized place in paleontological literature. 
When M. M. Edwards and Haime re-defined the genus Septastreay 
they referred to it with appropriate description a supposed new species- 
from the Tertiary of Maryland under the name of S.forbesi. D'Orbigny 
subsequently claimed S.forbesi E. and H. to be a synonyn of 6\ sitbram- 
osa D'Orbigny, a statement at least confirming the generic identity of 
the individual specimens to which the names S. subramosa and 6". for- 
besi had been applied. The fact that 6'. Jorbesi was the first species of 
the genus properly described would in accordance with the rigid rules 
of nomenclature insisted npon by such writers as Hinde in England 
and Ulrich in America, make S.forbesi E. and H. the type of the genus, 
S.forbesi E. and H. would be all the more firmly established as the tpye 
if, as claimed by D'Orbigny, it was identical with the nominal species- 
6'. subramosa D'Orbigny. 
More recently professors Duncan and Fromentel referred certain 
Mesozoic corals of the Jurassic period to the genus Septastrea; these 
Jurassic corals however, were not congeneric with the forms used by 
D'Orbigny and M. M. Edwards and Haime in establishing the genus. 
