On some Fossil Alcyonaria from the Tertiary Deposits of New Zealand

Abstract

M r . F. W. H utton , F.G.S., the Curator of the Otago Museum in New Zealand, has forwarded me some specimens from the Awawoa railway-cutting, Oawaru. They are from the upper part of the Oawaru formation, or what Mr. Hutton calls the Trelissic group. He considers the strata to be of that ill-defined age which some geologists term Oligocene, and others Upper Eocene. The specimens are hadly preserved, and consist of fragments of Isidinæ belonging to the genus Isis , and of Corallinæ belonging to the genus Corallium . There are no true Corals or Sclerodermic Madreporaria in the collection. The calcareous bodies and some of the bases or roots of the Isidinæ are amongst the collection; and there are many fragments of a slightly branching species of Corallium . I sidinæ Genus Isis . Plate XXXVIII. b . figs. 1—4. 1 The calcareous bodies are longer than broad, circular in outline, slightly constricted; and the ridges and furrows are distinct. They greatly resemble the specimens described from No. 3 bed, Cape Otway, Victoria, of group 1. (See the last communication.) 2 The calcareous body (fig. 2) is longer than broad, slightly bent; and the ridges are represented by straight series of long low granules; the furrows do not exist. This is quite a new form. 3 A long tapering basal piece (fig. 3), with a base of incrustation. The ridges and furrows are waved and very distinct. C orallinæ . Genus Corallium . The specimens are fragmentary. Some are with frequently branching furrows and ridges of the surface exceedingly developed and irregular