64 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



Class BRACHIOPODA. 



Genus Lingida, Bruguiere. 



Lingula spryi, sp. nov. (PI. X., Figs. 9, 9a). 



Specific characters. — Valves subovate, sides evenly rounded, 

 with an acuminate border below the beak ; the latter only very 

 slightly ridged ; broadly rounded anteriorly. Surface depressed 

 convex, highest at the posterior third of the length, thence 

 gradually sloping and becoming flattened towards the anterior 

 border. Surface smooth, with numerous, but rather faint growth- 

 lines. A faint frilling on the anterior margin, and on one or two 

 of the curved areas between the growth-lines in the median 

 region of the valve may be seen when the light is directed across 

 the shell. 



Measukements. 

 Length of largest specimen - - 7.6 mm. 

 Width of largest specimen - - 6 ,, 

 Thickness of united valves, about - 1.2 ,, 



Affinities. — The broadly spatulate form of the valve in this 

 species recalls some of the broader varieties of L. attenuatus, 

 Sowerby,^ but the latter form is typically narrower and more 

 acuminate posteriorly. Another form with which ours may be 

 compared, especially with regard to the surface convexity, is L. 

 syniondsi, Davidson.'- The noteworthy differences which separate 

 L. spryi from these species are the evenly rounded and almost 

 circular anterior margin, and the radial frilling of the surface 

 between the growth-lines. Lastly the L. perlata, J. Hall,'^ from 

 the Helderberg group of Albany, U.S.A., resembles our form in 

 the general outline of the valves, excepting that the above-named 

 species has not such an evenly rounded anterior margin, whilst 

 the concentric lines of growth are more deeply sculptured. 



Occurrence. — Found in the pale purplish argillaceous rock in 

 and around Melbourne, namely, in the Swanston Street sewerage 



J In Murchison's Silurian System, 1839, pi. xxii., fig. 13; also Davidson, Brit. Sil. 

 Brachiopoda, 1866 (Mon. Pal. Soc), p. 44, pi. iii., fi^'s. 18-i:7 (c./., fig. 19). 



2 L. syniondsi, Davidson (Salter MS.), Brit. Sil. Brach., p. 45, pi. iii., figs. 7-17. 



3 Palaeontology of New York, 1859, vol. iii., p. 1.56, pi. ix., figs. 3-5. 



