308 
In speaking of the affinities of Columnaria, Professor Nicholson says 1 , 
“ There is sometimes a curious irregularity of the septa, one or more 
being predominantly developed, and there are also two distinct sets of 
these structures, a long and a short series, alternating regularly with 
one another.” In the present species four or five are predominant, and 
this leads us to quote further from Nicholson (p. 193). “ In fact, it 
might be at once, and without anv violence, placed in the Stauridce , close 
to Staunch, except that there is no predominant development of four of 
the septa.” There is, however, in the Loyola examples the obvious 
development of certain of the primary septa, and that would seem to 
imply a like relationship with the Stauridce, although not agreeing pre¬ 
cisely in the numerical arrangement of the septa. 
In the ill-preserved examples in the present collection the septa appear, 
under the microscope by transmitted light, to be partially dissolved out, 
especially towards the centre of the calice; and therefore the normal, 
twisted, club-ended terminals of the primary septa cannot be easily dis¬ 
cerned. But a curious restoration of these apparently badly preserved 
corals may be made by taking a covered microscope section of the coral 
and holding it obliquely at an angle of total reflection before a strong 
light, when the thick wall of the corallite, and the alternate septa, with 
the festooned Favistella -like thecal margin, may be easily seen. 
There is one other Australian species of Columnaria already described, 
by Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., namely, C. pauciseptata, from the Silurian 
rocks of Molong, New South Wales 2 . The corallites of this form are 
of the same diameter as our type, but only half the size of the largest 
Loyola specimen, that is, having a diameter of one millimetre; which 
dimension Mr. Etheridge says is constant. Moreover, it has 16 septa, 
against 20 in the present form, w T hilst the corallites in the Molong coral 
are more consistently irregularly polygonal. 
Columnaria ( Loyolophyllum ) cresswelli is apparently confined to the 
Loyola fauna, for, although the Newer Silurian limestone of the Thom¬ 
son River area and of Lily dale (Cave Hill) have been more or less worked 
over for their corals, the species has not yet been met with at those 
localities. 
F AM. F AVOSITID2E. 
Genus Favosites Lamarck, 1816. 
Favosites eorbesi Edwards and Haime, Plate LIII., fig. 19 ; pi. LVI., fig. 27 . 
Favosites gothlandica Lonsdale (non Lamarck), 1839 , in Murchison’s Silurian System, p. 682, 
pi. XV. bis, figs. 3 , 4 . 
F.forbesi Edwards and Haime, iS ss, Mon. Brit. Foss. Corals (Pal. Soc.), p. 25 L pi. LX., figs. 2 > 
za-g. Nicholson, 1879 , Tabulate Corals, p. 56 , pi. I., fig. 7 ; pi. II:, figs. 1 -?; pi. III., figs. 1 , 2 . 
Numerous coralla, referable to the above species, occur on the sur¬ 
face of a block of limestone (No. 746), from Cooper’s Creek. The 
corals are generally of small size, measuring from 2-4 cm. across. They 
are subglobular or depressed pyriform, and are distinguished by the 
irregular size of the corallites. The tabulae and mural pores are like 
those of F. gothlandica, to which it bears a close relationship. Another 
specimen, here figured, occurs in a microscope section from No. 573, 
Deep Creek, which well illustrates the quick change of growth from 
layer to layer, at varying angles. Fig. 27 on plate LVI. represents a 
section of the same species, also from Deep Creek, taken close to the 
stalked base of the corallum. 
1 . Tabulate Corals, 1879, p. 193. 
2. Rec. Austr. Mus., vol. III., No. 2, 1897, p. 30, pi. VIII. 
