Spirifer cuspidatus and of certain allied Spiriferide. 69 
of the same meaning. Indeed the question never once suggested 
itself to my mind whether you might not have been mistaken in 
regard to the shells you had examined ; for I assure you there 
is no one living in whose opinion on such a question I have 
more confidence than in yours”’*, 
The results I have now to communicate, whilst fully con- 
firmatory of my original determination, also afford a complete 
verification of the sagacious guess thus put forward by Mr. 
Meek. | 
Through the kindness of Mr. Worthen and Mr. Meek, I have 
been furnished with the following materials for examination :— 
1. Chips of the type species of the genus Syringothyris, 
established by Prof. Winchell on the basis of a very peculiar 
feature of internal structure, which differentiates it from ordi- 
nary Spirifers, viz. the connexion of the vertical dental plates 
(fig. 1 /, 2) by a transverse lamina (fig. 2, ¢r) which gives off a pair 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 
SA 
WERE vy 
Fig. 1. Syringothyris typa, from a drawing by Prof. Winchell : /, 7, dental 
plates; A B, plane of section. 
Fig. 2. Section of Syringothyris typa across the plane a B, after Winchell : 
1,1, dental plates; tr, transverse lamina; ¢, incomplete tube. 
of parallel lamelle that curve towards each other so as nearly to 
meet on the median line, and thus form an incomplete tube (¢) 
* I cannot but contrast the courteous tone in which Mr. Meek (an entire 
stranger to me) has expressed his full reliance on my scientific accuracy in 
this matter with the treatment I continue to receive from Prof. King, who, 
in spite of my reiterated warnings against the fallacy of such superficial 
observations, has again (in the last number of the Geological Magazine) 
called in question the correctness of my statements, on no better evidence 
than that afforded by the examination of the surface of a specimen of 
Spirifer cuspidatus with a hand magnifier ! 
