276 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1887 AND 1888. 



Clement L. Webster (272-270) lias communicated several papers on 

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

 nately he has named and i)ublishcd descriptions of several supposed new 

 species. Among the species reported (276) as "known to occur in the 

 Eockford shale and the rocks a few feet below" are Spirifera di.yiincta 

 Sow. and EhynchoneUa venustula, Hall. Having never before heard of 

 the occurrence of these species in the Devonian of the interior, the 

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

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

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

 under the nnii^e Spirifera Parryana, 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 the American 

 Naturalist, vol. xxii) : 



EhyncltoneJla suhacuminala, p. 1015. 



Athyris minulissima, p. 1015. 



Paracyclas validaUnea, p. 1016. 



Platysloma minis, p. 1016. 



Platystoma pervetas, p. 1016. 



Naticopsis rarua, p. 1016. 



Turbo slrif/iUata, p. 1016. 



Titrho (?) iucerius, p. 1017. 



HoJo2)ea ieuuicarinata, ji. 1017. 



Cyclonema hreviUncata, p. 1017. 



Cyclonema subcrenula, p. 1018. 



Spirifera siibsirigosa, p. 1101. 



Atrypa liystrix, var. clonyata, n. var., p. 1104. 



Atrypa hystrix, var. planoaulcata, u. 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 : 



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



Dolatocrinus Canadensis, p. 99, pi. 12, f. 3, 3fl, 3&, aud 3c. 



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



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



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



Platyostoma plica-turn, p. 118, pi. ir>, 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 Ameriqan Association 

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

 port on the Upper Paleozoic (Devonic)," published by the 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 present at least four types of strati- 

 graphical order and composition, and that the paleontological history 

 recorded in the four areas is distinct, both in the composition of the 

 faunas as a whole and in their subdivisions into separate temporary 



