THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



" per litora spargite museum, 



Naiades, et circum vitreos considite fontes: 

 Polliee virgineo teneros hie carpite flores : 

 Floribus et pictum, divse, replete eanistnmi. 

 At vos, o Nymphae Craterides, ite sub undas ; 

 Ite, recurvato variata eorallia truneo 

 Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Perte, De» pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo." 



iV. Parthenii Oiannettaiii Eel. 1. 



No. 7. JULY 1868. 



I. — Monograph ofSpirifer cuspidatus (Syringothyris cuspi- 

 data), Martin. By Professor W. King. 



[Plates II. & III.] 



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 palaeontologists 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. Cai*penter 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. 1 



