Dr. T. Wright on the Cidaridse of the Oolites. 251 



granules of a much smaller size than those encircling the margins 

 of the areolae. The mouth- opening is circular and about one-half 

 the diameter of the test at the equator ; the tubercles surround- 

 ing the mouth are well developed, but smaller than those occu- 

 pying the middle and upper part of the test. The apical disc is 

 absent, but the space which it filled is of considerable diameter. 

 The spines have not been met with in our locality. 



Affinities and differences. — C. propinqua so nearly resembles 

 C. coronata, that although it was described as a distinct species 

 by Agassiz in his ' Echinoderm. Foss. de la Suisse/ it was after- 

 wards grouped as var. minor of C. coronata in the ' Catalogue 

 raisonne des Echinides*^ of the same author. The test of this 

 Urchin has unquestionably a very close resemblance to C. coro- 

 nata, but a fact mentioned by Goldfuss should not be overlooked ; 

 he found peculiar spines associated only with C. propinqua, which 

 never occurred with C. coronata-f. The extreme narrowness of 

 the ambulacral arese with the two marginal rows of granules 

 likewise distinguish it from C coronata, which has six rows in 

 the same arese. In the absence of crenulations from the mam- 

 millary eminences on the lower part of the test, together with the 

 bead-like granular circle around the areolae, it resembles C. coro- 

 nata. Not having a specimen of that species in oui* cabinet with 

 which to compare the specimen before us, we are unable to pur- 

 sue the comparison further. 



Locality and stratigraphical range. — Whilst searching the Pea • 

 grit of Crickley Hill to find a more perfect specimen of Gonio- 

 pygus for Mr. Baily to figure, I discovered C. propinqua, having 

 only seen a defaced specimen once before from the same bed and 

 locality, which was too much worn to be identified. We have never 

 seen this species in any collection of Inferior Oolite fossils, and 

 from the pains we have taken to ascertain the different species 

 found in the Cotteswold Hills, it must be rare ; it occurs in the 

 Stonesfield slate at Eyeford, but is very rare J. In Germany it 

 was found by Count Miinster in the Baireutheschen Jurakalke, 

 principally in the vicinity of Streitberg§. In Switzerland it oc- 

 curs in the Terrain h. chailles in the environs of Besan^on, Bale, 

 Randen, and Sirchingen ||. In France it was collected by M. Cot- 

 teau from the corallian stage at Druyes, but always in the state 

 of moulds, the specimens being of small size and having very 

 narrow ambulacral arese^. 



* Annales des Sciences Nat. torn. vi. 3rd series, p. 331. 

 t Goldfuss, Petrefact. part 1. p. 120. 



X Sir R. Murchison, Geol. of Cheltenham, 2nd ed., by Buckman and 

 Strickland, p. 68. 



§ Goldfuss, Petrefact. German, part 1. p. 120. 



II Annales des Sciences Nat. torn. vi. .3rd series, p. 331. 



H Echinides Foss. du Depart, de I'Yonne, p. 10 



S: 



