216 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1887 AND 1888. 



Clement L. Webster (272-27(3) Las communicated several papers on 

 tbe Paleontology of the Devonian rocks of Northern Iowa. Unfortu- 

 nately be has named and published descriptions of several supposed new 

 species. Among the species reported (270) as "known to occur in the 

 Eockford shale and the rocks a few feet below" are 8pirifera disjuncta 

 Sow. and Ehynclionella venu.stula, Hall. Having never before heard of 

 the occurrence of these si)ecies in the Devonian of the interior, the 

 writer requested a loan of the specimens so named; the author kindly 

 sent specimens fo» examination of the former, which proved to be not 

 Spirifera disjuncta, but the form which appears to be known in Iowa 

 under the uume Spirifera Farryana, Hall, a form quite distinct from Sp. 

 disjuncta, although associated with it in some beds in New York. This 

 casts doubt upon the other identifications. The specific names pub- 

 lished by the author with descriptions, but without illustrations, are as 

 follows (all from the Eockford shales of Iowa, and all in tbe American 

 Naturalist, vol. xxii) : 



Hhynchoiiella snhavuminala, p. 1015. 



Athyris 7)niinti8sUna, p. 1015. 



Paracydas vaUdalinea, p. lOlG. 



Platyslonia minis, \). 1016. 



Flaiystoma pervetiis, p. lOlG. 



NaticopsiH varus, p. 1016. 



Turbo slrUjiUata, p. 1016. 



Turho (?) incertus, p. 1017. 



noJopeaienmcarinata, p. 1017. 



Cycloiiema brevilineaia, p. 1017. 



Cycloiiema subcrenula, p. 1018. 



Spirifera subslrigosa, p. 1101. 



Atrypa hystrix, var. eJongata, u. var., p. 1104. 



Atrypa hystrix, \ai\ planosulcata, n. var., p. 1104. 



J. F. Whiteaves (291) gives a list of the fossils from the Hamilton for- 

 mation of Ontario, and describes the following new species : 



Hoinocrinus crassus, p. 95, pi. 12, f. 2. 



Dolaiocrinus Canadensis, p. 99, pi. 12, f. 3, 3a,3Z*,autl 3c. 



Pentremitklea filosa, p. 104, pi. 14, f. 1, la, 16. 



Lingida Thedfordensis, p. Ill, pi, 15, f. 1. 



Spirifera subdeciissata, p. 114, pi. 15, f. 3, 3a. 



Platyostoma plicaUim, i». 118, pi. r.>, f. 6. 



H. S. Williams (301) presents a paper in which the various types of 

 the Devonian system in North America are classified and defined. This 

 paper was read at the New York meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, August, 1887, and is a part of tbe " Ee- 

 port on tbe Upper Paleozoic (Devonic)," published by tbe American 

 Committee of the International Congress of Geologists, and presented 

 to the London session in September, 1888. The author shows that the 

 rocks of the Devonian system jiresent at least four types of strati- 

 graphical order and composition, and that the paleoutological history 

 recorded in the four areas is distinct, both in the comi)Osition of the 

 faunas as a whole and in their subdivisions into separate temporary 



