226 PROBOSCIDIA. 



have yet seen, measured fifteen inches in length, and had 

 twenty-two coronal plates : it was discovered in the drift 

 at Wellsborne in Warwickshire. Mammoths'' molars 

 of less dimensions have come under my observation, in 

 which the crown had been divided into twenty- five and 

 twenty-six transverse plates. 



In the lower jaw, the grinders as they succeed one another 

 from behind forwards are also larger, and have more nume- 

 rous plates than those which they displace, and the number 

 of plates increases more gradually and with less constancy 

 than in the Asiatic Elephant. 



A lower molar of the Mammoth may always be dis- 

 tinguished from an upper molar, by the grinding surface 

 being slightly concave in the direction of its longest dia- 

 meter, that of the upper molar being in the same degree 

 convex. 



The largest lower molar of a Mammoth that has come 

 under my observation, is the one represented in fig. 90 : its 

 length, or antero-posterior diameter, following the curve on 

 the convex side is one foot seven inches : the number of the 

 lamelliform divisions of the crown is twenty-eight. This re- 

 markably fine molar exhibits the most complete state in 

 which the progressive development and the actions of masti- 

 cation permit so large a grinder to be seen : the anterior 

 portion of the crown having been worn down to the common 

 base of dentine (T), from which the fang is continued; whilst 

 the last, or hindmost plates, have been completed, as far 

 as the formation of the digital divisions (/",/"), which form, 

 by their basal confluence, the transverse plate. 



The complex structure, and mode of growth of the molar 

 teeth in the genus Elephas is so well illustrated by this 

 specimen, that I shall here give the brief account which is 

 necessary for the intelligibility of subsequent references to 



