BY R. ETHERIDGE, JUNE. 753 



by Conularia in the marine beds of the N. S. Wales Permo- 

 Carboniferoiis System. Many points in the life history of Conu- 

 laria yet remain to be solved, such as its proper place in the 

 zoological scale, perfect condition of the shell, and other details. 

 The constant association of wood with the mollusc in these 

 nodules is, to say the least of it, peculiar. 



2, Hyolithes lanceolatus. 



(Plate XX., figs. 2-7). 



One of the few known Carboniferous species of J. D. C. 

 Sowerby's genus Theca was described by the late Prof. John 

 Morris in Strzelecki's work ^* as Theca lanceolata, from Illawarra, 

 and it also happens that this was likewise the first enunciation 

 of the genus. It was pointed otit, however, by the late M. 

 Barrande f that Eichwald's genus Hyolithes^ proposed for similar 

 supposed lanceolate-shaped shells, was published five years before 

 the appearance of Strzelecki's work. This is unfortunate, as 

 Sowerby and Morris's genus had become well-known and estab- 

 lished amongst geologists ; but as the strict law of priority necessi- 

 tates the adoption of Eichwald's name, our Australian fossil 

 must in future be known as Hyolithes lanceolatus, Morris, sp. 

 This is much to be regretted, for Morris's description is far more 

 comprehensive and fuller than Eichwald's. 



The Mining and Geological Museum is again indebted to Mr. 

 John Waterhouse for some excellently preserved specimens of 

 this shell with the operculum in situ. The first observer to make 

 known the presence of an operculum in Theca, so far as I am 

 aware, was the late Mr. J. W. Salter, | but this part of the 

 economy was afterwards copiously illustrated by Barrande. 

 Salter remarked that the shell described by him as Theca opercu- 

 lata, had " constantly associated with it, and often in juxta- 



* Phys. Descrip. N. S. Wales, &c., 1845, p. 289, t. 18, f. 8. 



+ Loc cit. p. 55. 



t Mem. Geol. Survey Gt. Britain, iii. 2nd Edit. 1881, p. 558. 



