M. E. Beyrich on Goniatites. . 9 



in all the intertropical colonies vanilla might be cultivated 

 and a great abundance of fruit obtained by the process of ar- 

 tificial fecundation ; and secondly^ that in all our hot-houses 

 this culture would succeed quite as well as that of the Ananas, 

 and would undoubtedly become more profitable. It is a sub- 

 ject which well deserves attention in a commercial point of 

 view ; and is moreover a proof of the importance of science 

 for improving every branch of industry. 



II. — On the Goniatites found in the Transition Formations 

 of the Rhine. By M. Ernest Beyrich*. 

 [With Plates.] 

 We are indebted to M. Leopold von Buch for the establish- 

 ment of a decided and precise separation between the Ammo- 

 nites and the Nautili f. He has pointed out what must be 

 considered an essentially different organization in the former 

 of these Cephalopods: in fact, the siphuncle does not penetrate 

 the transverse plates as in the Nautilus and other kindred ge- 

 nera, with the single function of fixing the animal strongly to 

 the shell, but is prolonged between the chambers and the 

 shell, as a much more important organ, and hke a solid liga- 

 ment surrounds the animal to the very extremity of the exte- 

 rior. 



The Goniatites must be considered as one division of the 

 Ammonites ; they are the representatives of the genus in the 

 oldest fossiliferous rocks of the transition formations and of 

 the carboniferous strata. The Goniatites are distinguished 

 from the Amm,onites by the more simple divisions of the cham- 

 bers which are not denticulated like the leaves of a flower, and 

 have lobes following a law less simple and precise than that 

 which governs the formation of the more recent Ammonites. 

 In some species indeed the lobes are scarcely perceptible, and 

 they might be mistaken for Nautili, if it were not for the 

 dorsal lobe, which necessarily accompanies the dorsal siphun- 

 cle. The greater part of the Goniatites have but one lateral 

 lobe, which is sometimes greatly rounded, sometimes angulose 

 and infundibuliform, and sometimes linguiform. When there 



* This memoir appeared as a pamphlet in 1837 at Berlin ; the present 

 translation is from the French in the * Annales des Scien. Nat.' vol. x. p. 65. 

 1838, carefully corrected from the German original. 



t See Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1st Series, t. xxix. 



