NEWTON : ON V0LUTILITHE8. 101 



Voliita muricina, Lam., [Hist. Nat. Anim. sans Vert., 1822, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 350, 

 non " Systeme," as quoted by Swainson ;] Ency. Meth., pi. 383, fig. 1. 



The fourth principal division of the Lamarckian Volutes has 

 hitherto been found only in a fossil state, unless, indeed, the Valuta 

 Braziliana really belongs to this type. The species are very numerous, 

 both in the London Clay and in the Calcaire grassier of Grignon. They 

 offer some beautiful types of form, representing the conterminous 

 groups in this family, some of which we may hereafter notice more 

 particularly. The pre-eminent type may probably be the V. musicalis 

 of Lamarck ; as yet, we only know this fossil from descriptions and 

 figures, but it has obviously been confounded with several others. 

 Lamarck has given a character so exquisitely finished of V. muricina 

 that we have done little more than translate his words. Our specimen 

 appears to be from Grignon, and was furnished to us with the following 

 by Messrs. Stuchbury, 33, Theobald's Road, Bedford Row. 



VoLUTILITHES PERTUSA. [PI. XII, Fig. 2.] 



Shell subf usiform, and the base striated ; the upper part with thick, 

 remote, and somewhat nodulous ribs ; transversed near the suture 

 with lines of punctured striie ; inner lip thickened, plaits on the pillar 

 distinct, the last very strong, the two next smaller, and the upper verj^ 

 slender. 



This species is certainly undescribed by Lamarck, nor do we find it 

 in Dr. Fleming's useful compendium of the ' Mineral Conchology.' 

 Our specimen has the grey tinge of the London Clay fossils. Neither 

 of these species are typical, as they represent the recent costated 

 Volutes in the adjoining group." 



It is obvious from this account that Swainson was in doubt as to the 

 type of Valutilithes from the fact that he queried Valuta musicalis of 

 Lamarck, the form selected as the type, and by further stating in the 

 text that "the pre-eminent type may probably be the V. tnusicalis of 

 Lamarck," he being only familiar with that species from figures and 

 descriptions and not from actual specimens. 



In the present argument, however, such a point is apparently of 

 little consequence, for on analysing the Lamarckian species, which is 

 a well-known Eocene shell common to the Anglo-Parisian basin, it is 

 found to be a closely related form of the modern Valuta musica, the 

 type of Valuta as emended by Lamarck, and therefore a member of 

 that genus. 



It follows then that Lamarck's musicalis, being a true Valuta, 

 necessarily invalidates its subsequent use by Swainson as an example 

 of Valutilithes; and while on the subject of Valuta it may be mentioned 

 that the genus Valutulyria was founded by H. Crosse in 1877 for the 

 reception of Valuta musica of Linnaeus, and therefore becomes 

 a synonym of Valuta, this fact having been explained by M. Cossmann 

 in his " Essais de Paleoconchologie Comparee," 1899, 3rd livraisou, 

 pp. 109, 110. 



The second species included by Swainson in Volutilithes was the 

 Valuta muricina of Lamarck, a shell known alike in the Eocene 



