U 6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



these bodies, a species of Spirifer was a fossil in a certain condition of 

 preservation or from a special locality ; these facts added to the usually 

 execrable condition of the specimen, the disposition (not yet extinct) to 

 construe a species from internal casts and to neglect the quite as essen- 

 tial and determinative exterior qualities have conspired to make com- 

 parisons extremely difficult. With the better knowledge of the present 

 the way is less insecure. 



Spirifer subcuspidatus Schnur var. lateincisus Scupin 



Plate 30, figures 15-19 



Spirifer subcuspidatus var. lateincisa Scupin. Die Spirif. Deutschlands, 



p.i9, pi. i, fig. 13, 14. Palaeontolog. Abhandl. 1900. v. 8 

 Spirifer subcuspidatus lateincisus Scupin. Clarke. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 



107. 1907. p. 254 



Under this term is separated by the writer quoted, certain shells which 

 have heretofore passed as S . hysteric us Schloth., among them those 

 identified by Beushausen from the Spirifer sandstone of the Kahleberg. It 

 is with these shells, many of which were collected by the writer in the Hartz 

 when in company with the late Professor Beushausen, and which are now 

 before me bearing his label, that I undertake to identify 

 the Spirifer prevailing at Presque Isle stream. The 

 critical feature from which the varietal term here used is 

 derived is the long and divergent dental plates of the 



ventral valve, lateincisus being a term which has 



TTbcuspida- no significance in application to the organism but only 

 var. lateincisus to j(; S mechanical surroundings. This Spirifer is a form 



Scupin. Internal cast of 1 . 1 A 11* T"\ 



venirai vaive showing not represented in the Appalachian Uevonic ; compan- 

 divergent dental plates, SO ns therewith are thus needless. Agreement with the 

 specimens from Hahnenklee and Ramelsberg in the 

 Hartz is found in the following particulars : 



1 Size. The average in this respect is slightly larger for the adult 

 German specimens. 



2 Outline. The hinge is not extended ; cardinal angles not pro- 

 duced and less than or equal to 90 degrees. The margins are gently 

 rounded and gradually approximate to the front. The cardinal area is 

 moderately high and slightly curved making an arched ventral valve. 



3 Plication. The median sinus in each has the width of five to six 

 lateral furrows. The lateral plications are eight to nine on each side of fold 

 and sinus and they are narrow, round, separated by furrows of similar width 

 The concentric markings are growth lines which may show a tendency to 

 rugosity near the front. 



4 Fold and simis. The sinus is moderately deep and angulated. It is 



