Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 27.djvu/511

This page needs to be proofread.

THE

QUARTERLY JOURNAL

OF

THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

PROCEEDINGS

OF

THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

April 26, 1871.

Robert Russell, Esq., of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, was elected a Fellow of the Society.

The following communications were read : —

1. On a New Species of Coral from the Red Crag- of Waldringfield. By P. Marten Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S., Prof. Geol. King's Coll. Lond., &c.

The solitary specimen of a compound Madreporarian which forms the subject of this communication, was found by Mr. Alfred Bell at Waldringfield, and was sent to me for description. The coral is interesting, because it belongs to a reef-forming type which has lasted from the Eocene to the present day, and which, doubtless, some day or other, will prove to be much more ancient.

The specimen had been considerably rolled and worn before its deposition amongst the other materials constituting the Red Crag, and it must therefore be regarded as a remanie fossil. It becomes, therefore, rather important that the geological age of the form should be determined ; but as its mineralization affords no assistance in this inquiry, any satisfactory results must depend upon the correct appreciation of its palaeontology.

Genus Solenastraea, Milne-Edwards & Jules Haime, 1848.

Solenastroea Prestwichi, sp. nov.

The corallum is short, and the corallites are crowded.

The upper surface is very irregular, and the corallites differ in size.

vol. xxvii. — part i. 2d