234 Messrs. W. K. Parker and T. R. Jones on the 



ritzensis. These do not attain a large size : the third is in some 

 respects the best of these three ; it may be said to be a largish, 

 flat, smooth N. Rouaulti passing into N. planulata. N. planu- 

 lata is the feeblest in growth, but is little behind its fellows, 

 and has been long known, owing to its plentiful occurrence in 

 the Nummulitic rocks of Western Europe. N. Biaritzensis is 

 its stronger representative in Eastern Europe and in Asia. 



The next group are still more sinuate in their alar growth, 

 though more or less simply radiate in the young state, and evi- 

 dently must supply the type of a large proportion of, if not all, the 

 Nummulina < ; for the simple forms above referred to are merged 

 in them, and the great complanate forms are but the result of 

 discoidally extended growth. To several varieties of these well- 

 built sinuo-radiate forms D'Archiac and Haime gave binomial 

 appellations in 1853 ; one was previously named (iV. obtusa, Sow.); 

 and to one they applied the name " N. perforata " — a highly 

 objectionable term that De Montfort had given to a figure of a 

 young individual in 1808. Copying Fichtel and Moll's engraving 

 of a granulated Nummulina, De Montfort was puzzled whether 

 to term the circular spots with which he disfigured his sketch 

 projections or tubes ; he applied both names, adopting the latter. 

 In later years, MM. D'Archiac and Haime, examining sections 

 of similar Nummulines under the microscope, adopted views (as 

 others did also) that coincided with the notion of there being, or 

 of there having been, perforations in the shell; and the term 

 " perforata" was not objected to on the ground of illogicality, as 

 it ought to have been. 



Thus we have a N. perforata named on the "lucus a non 

 lucendo " principle — not having the perforations which were 

 thought to characterize it ; and this N. perforata is a good type 

 and the oldest-named of the group — and not only of the group, 

 but probably of Nummulince in general. 



That N. complanata is the best representative of the " sinuata)" 

 is not to be questioned : it reaches from Western Europe * to 

 India; and several of the forms figured in the Monograph may 

 be readily made to own its close relationship. N. Gizensis, its 

 chief Egyptian variety, has had a name for a much longer time, 

 but bears its varietal or subvarietal features strongly marked 

 when compared with its more noble congener. How far it was 

 right to ignore Bruguiere's name "N. nummularia" for La- 

 marck's N. complanata we will not decide ; expediency perhaps 

 now justifies the current nomenclature in this casef- 



There can be little doubt that N. laevigata and its granulate 



* We erroneously stated, in Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3. vol. v. p. 296, that 

 t was characteristically oriental in its distribution, 

 t See D'Archiac and Haime's Monogr. pp. 87 & 126. 



