OF CONCHOLOGY 829 



his numerous examinations of that species, which he had pro- 

 nounced without punctures, but suggested that there might be 

 two very similar, but really quite distinct forms in the British 

 carboniferous rocks, confounded under the one name S. cuspida- 

 tus, — -that is, one with a punctate structure, and one without it, 

 — and stated that some one provided with duplicate British spe- 

 cimens ought to examine them carefully, to see if any were 

 punctured, and if so, to make sections across the beak to see if 

 this structure is coincident with the presence of the internal tube 

 of Syritigothyrls ; stating at the same time that such differences, 

 if they really exist, would show this type to differ from Spirifer 

 proper (supposing the latter to be impunctate and Avithout the 

 internal tube), upon as important characters as those separating 

 Spiriferina from Spirifer^ and Cyrtbia from Cyrtia. 



On seeing a notice only of this paper. Dr. Carpenter supposed 

 Mr. Meek had called in question the accuracy of his oiiginal 

 investigations of the structure of S. cuspidatus, and re-ex- 

 amined all his old preparations, as well as numerous fragments 

 of other specimens sent to him from various British localities, 

 and found them all, as he had long since published, without traces 

 of punctures. Hence he published the paper first noticed by us, 

 and expressed the opinion that Mr. Meek had either mistaken 

 little specks on the surface of the shells examined by him for 

 punctures, or that they belonged to another genus. Mr. Meek, 

 however, after a careful examination, not only of the species first 

 investigated by him, but of several other closely allied species not 

 previously examined, including Prof. Winchell's typical speci- 

 mens of Syringofhyris, still maintained that all of these shells 

 arereally punctate (Am. Jour. Sci. May, 1867, p. 407). 



On receiving chippings from all of these shells from Mr, Wor- 

 then, Prof. Winchell and Mr. Meek, Dr. Carpenter at once 

 satisfied himself that they are all unquestionahly punctate. He 

 then obtained several specimens of the shells always regarded as 

 the typical S. cuspidatus, from Melicent, Ireland, and found some 

 of them punctate, and others not ; and on making sections across 

 the beak, as suggested by Mr. Meek, he ascertained that those 

 with the punctate structure also possess the internal tube and false 

 deltidium of Syriiigothyris ; while tliose without the pioictate 

 structure have neither the tube nor the internal lamina (see Ann. 

 and Mag. Nat. Hist. July, 1867, p. 68). So it will thus be seen 

 that at the same time that these developments fully confirm Dr. 

 Carpenter's original examinations of the true S. cuspidatus, 

 they also fully and completely establish not only all of Mr. 

 Meek's statements of facts, but equally confirm his deductions 

 from analogy respecting the existence of two types amongst the 

 British shells usually referred to S. cuspidatus. 



