Mr. J. Morris on the genus Siphonotreta. 315 
XXXI.— Note on the genus Siphonotreta, with a description of a 
new Species. By Joun Morris, F.G.S. 
{ With a Plate.] 
Amone the numerous interesting fossils collected by Mr. John 
Gray from the Wenlock limestone and shale im the vicinity of 
Dudley, is one which I feel convinced belongs to Siphonotreta 
(de Vern.), a genus of Brachiopoda, hitherto considered peculiar 
to the Silurian formations of Russia. The genus having been 
previously unnoticed in this country, and presenting some pecu- 
harities both as regards the structure of the shell and the mode 
of attachment, it may not be uninteresting to offer a few gene- 
ral remarks on the subject; more especially as this genus, and 
some apparently allied forms, have been lately made the subject 
of a special notice by Dr. Kutorga of St. Petersburg. In this 
memoir* Dr, Kutorga has grouped together m one family (the 
Siphonotretez) four genera, Siphonotreta, Acrotreta, Schizotreta 
and Aulonotreta, which scarcely present any character in com- 
mon, and have been in part considered by preceding authors 
as belonging to different groups or distinct subfamilies of the 
Brachiopoda. 
Differing from Dr. Kutorga upon the relative value of the cha- 
racters of these genera, as well as their arrangement or the 
grouping of them in one family, and certainly objecting to that 
pernicious system of coming new generic names without a sufli- 
ciently valid reason, merely for the sake of introducing a more 
euphonious terminology, I cannot at the same time but freely 
acknowledge that paleontologists are indebted to him for his 
elaborate memoir, containing descriptions of some new and in- 
teresting forms, illustrated with many beautiful figures of the 
different species. 
Of the above-mentioned genera, two have been known for 
about twenty years. One of them, remarkable for the immense 
abundance with which it occurs in the Lower Silurian grits of the 
north of Russia, its broken fragments disseminated in the plane 
of stratification, giving the rock a micaceous appearance, was 
first made known (1829) as a peculiar genus by Prof. Eichwald+ 
under the name of Obolus (Aulonotreta, Kut.) ; about the same 
period (1830), Pander { gave the name Ungula to this fossil, 
which L. von Buch § (1840) considered to be an Orthis. The other 
* Ueber die Siphonotretez, von Dr. S. Kutorga, Verhandlungen der 
Kaiserlichen Mineralogischen Gesellschaft fiir das Jahr 1847, p. 250, 
St. Petersburg, 1848. 
+ Zoologia specialis, 1829, vol. i. p. 274. 
{ Beitrage zur Geognosie des Russischen Reichs, 1830. 
§ Beitrage zur Bestimmung der Gebirgsformationen Russlands, 1840. 
