THE ANNALS 
AND 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[FOURTH SERIES. ] 
“Ocopsrinor Seassetas per litora spargite muscum, 
Naiades, et circiim vitreos considite fontes: 
Pollice virgineo teneros hic carpite flores: 
Floribus et pictum, dive, replete canistrum. 
At vos, o Nymphe Craterides, ite sub undas; 
Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco 
Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 
Ferte, De pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo.” 
N. Parthenii Giannettasii Eel. 1. 
No. 7. JULY 1868. 
I.-——Monograph of Spirifer cuspidatus (Syringothyris cuspi- 
data), Martin. By Professor W. Kina. 
ee eee [ Plates I. & IIT.] 
~ae 
Two special memoirs on this species have lately appeared— 
one by Dr. Carpenter, published in the ‘ Annals and Mag. of 
Nat. Hist.’ for last July, and the other by Mr. Davidson, 
which is inserted in the ‘ Geological Magazine’ of the same 
month. The latter gives an account of some important dis- 
coveries recently made by different paleontologists on this 
and other related species ; while the former is chiefly taken up 
with a description of Dr. Carpenter’s own investigations on its 
internal and histological features. 
Dr. Carpenter’s investigations have led him to adopt a 
somewhat novel conclusion, that “‘ there is an exact isomorph 
of Spirifer cuspidatus, not distinguishable from it by external 
conformation, but generically differentiated by a very marked 
peculiarity of internal structure” (viz. dental plates connected 
by a transverse canaliferous septum) and a ‘“ patchy perforated 
shell-tissue.”’ 
Notwithstanding that Dr. Carpenter upholds in the strongest 
manner his conclusion as an “ incontestably established fact,”’ 
I venture to give my reasons for believing that the fossils 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.4. Vol. ii. i 
