Lign. 86. Favosites polymorpha. (Goldfuss.)
Devonian limestone. Eifel.
| Fig. | 1.— | Portion of a branch of the coral; nat. |
| 2.— | Fragment, slightly magnified, with part of the surface broken away below, exposing the central axis, and radiated arrangement of the cells, with their lateral pores. | |
| 3.— | Another portion, magnified, showing the polype-cells hollow. |
Favosites polymorpha. [Lign. 86.] [Lign. 88, fig. 3.]—Polyparium stony, polymorphous, solid internally, compact, composed of a congeries of diverging or ascending parallel, contiguous, prismatic tubes, covered by pores, divided by lamellæ, and communicating by lateral foramina.
The corals of this extinct genus abounded in the Silurian and Devonian seas; the remains occur with those of other fossil zoophytes of that epoch in great numbers, both in Europe and North America. I have many beautiful examples from the Silurian rocks of the Ohio and Niagara, by favour of Dr. Owen, of New Harmony, and Dr. Yandell, of Louisville, in which the cells are filled up with calcareous spar. The varied markings on many of the Babbicombe marbles, and Torquay pebbles, are derived from the enclosed Favosites (Wond. p. 643).
Another species (Favosites Gothlandica) occurs in masses of a subconical shape, and is common in some of the Silurian limestones. A fragment, to show the structure, is figured [Lign. 88, fig. 3].
CATENIPORA. SYRINGOPORA.
Catenipora (Wond. p. 644, fig. 3).—Polyparium hemispherical, composed of vertical anastomosing lamellæ; cells tubular, oval, terminal, united laterally. The oval form of the cells when united laterally, and the flexuous disposition of the lamellæ, give rise in transverse sections to elegant catenated markings, from which appearance the fossil has received the name of chain-coral.[240] The species figured (C. escharoides) in Wond. is common in the Silurian limestones, and sometimes forms hemispherical masses more than a foot in diameter. The chain-coral is extensively distributed through the Silurian rocks of the United States. Coloured figures of this exquisitely beautiful coral are given in Pict. Atlas, pl. XXXV.
[240] Org. Rem. vol. ii. pl. iii. figs. 4, 5, 6.
Syringopora ramulosa. [Lign. 88, fig. 2.] (Wond. p. 641.) These corals bear a general resemblance to the Organ-pipe Coral of Australia. The polypidom is composed of long, cylindrical, vertical tubes, distant from each other, and connected by transverse tubular processes; the cells are deep and radiated by numerous lamellæ.