38 Mr. Toulmin Smith on the Classification 



British Museum, again, is a large and valuable series of fossils, 

 which I have carefully examined, and which I can therefore state 

 with assured confidence to belong to this family*, and which are 

 stated to be from Mount Rhanden in Switzerland ; a locality the 

 strata of which are declared to be equivalent to the lower beds of 

 the Middle Oolite of England. The matrix appears much the 

 same as that of our English chalk marl ; but that test is, of course, 

 very incomplete. The point requires careful investigation ; and, 

 as the true character and importance of these fossils will have 

 now become known, it may be hoped that the attention of some 

 of the many competent foreign observers may be directed to it. 

 As I shall show the changes which these forms have undergone 

 in passing from one division of our English strata to another to 

 have been great, it will be peculiarly interesting to ascertain 

 exactly to what strata these foreign forms do actually belong ; for 

 many of them differ much from our English forms. It is inter- 

 esting at present to remark that the form which is of the great- 

 est vertical range in the English beds (Brachiolites digitatus) is 

 unequivocally found in these Rhanden beds. 



In p. 510 of the first volume of the Journal of the Geological 

 Society there is described by Mr. Lonsdale, under the name of 

 " Ocellaria ramosa," a fossil found by Mr. Lyell in the Eocene 

 deposits at Jacksonborough in Georgia, United States. Did this 

 fossil exhibit any true affinities with the group which has been 

 called Ocellaria it would necessarily belong to the Ventriculidse, 

 and I was anxious to ascertain the facts. Mr. Lyell has obli- 

 gingly enabled me to do this by placing in my hands all the 

 specimens found by him, and which are, it is believed, all that 

 have ever been found. The result is, that the fossil is found to 

 present none whatever of the characters of Ocellaria ; and I 

 cannot understand upon what grounds it has had this name affixed 

 to it by Mr. Lonsdale, except that he appears, from his observa- 

 tions, never to have had an opportunity of examining any actual 

 specimens of the so-called Ocellaria, and to have been misled by 

 some of the figures f. These fossils however answer to no part 

 of the generic description given by Ramond, or any subsequent 

 writer, of the Ocellaria. The tubules in the Eocene fossils are 

 tubules ramifying through a massive substance, and there is not 

 any polyparium which is " explanato-membranaceum," and " utro- 



* These treasures are at present unarranged. I should be happy to 

 assist in that task, and to complete it by adding, as far as possible from 

 my private collection, all the British forms, should the present Commis- 

 sion result in any prospect of improvement in that respect. 



■\ The figure specially referred to, and which is copied by Lamouroux, 

 pi. 72, fig. 5, has certainly a considerable resemblance to a special fractured 

 surface of the Eocene fossil. 



