8 PALAEONTOLOGY OF NEW YORK. 



reading of this paper as Sp. cuspidaius, 'Min. Con.' tab. 120, * *  may 

 have a similar construction within." 



A few writers have, with excellent reason, argued the application of the term 

 to species congeneric with A. cuspidaius. Among these were Professor King 

 (Monograph of the Permian Fossils of England, pp. 81, 126), and Mr. Meek 

 (Palaeontology of the Upper Missouri, p. 19), both of whom would have applied 

 KoBNio's term Trignotreta (1825) to spiriferoids of the type of A. striatus. It 

 is, however, too late now to enforce the prior rights of A. cuspidaius to recogni- 

 tion as the type of Spirifer. Winchell, in 1863, founded his genus Syringo- 

 THYRis on a species (S. typa, Winchell) very similar to, if not identical with A. 

 cuspidaius (according to King and Davidson),* and an inversion of the terms 

 could only induce lamentable disorder in nomenclature.! 



It is a most surprising fact that a group of brachiopods with so remarkable 

 a representation in species as this, should afford so unsatisfactory a basis for 

 generic subdivision. Of the various names which have been proposed by dif- 

 ferent authors but few can be advantageously applied. 



Trigonotreta was introduced by Koenig, in 1825,J for a heterogenous assem- 

 blage of species, consisting mainly of Spirifer and Orthis. King, in emending 

 and adopting the term, selected the species Terebratula Siokesi, Koenig, as the 

 type ; this appears to have been a form with plicated fold and sinus, and is, 

 hence, a member of the typical division of the genus, the Aperturati. What- 

 ever significance the term may have is derived from King's determinations, and 

 Trigonotreta, King, is a precise equivalent for Spirifer siriatus, Martin. 



Choristites, Fischer de Waldheim, 1825.§ This name was proposed by the 

 Russian author to replace Sowerby's designation on the ground that the inter- 

 nal organization described by the latter was common to all " the Terebratulas." 

 The first species of the genus cited both in this place and in his later work, 



*Mr. CautLn Bcbcciibrt re^rards WnrcHBLL's species as not equivalent to the English form, but a 

 tyaoaym for Spirifer {Syringothyrig) Carteri, Hall. See Forty-third Kept. N. Y. State Museum, p. 232, 1890. 



t Profe»or Kiaa subsequently abaadoned his |)osition in this matter (Davidson, op. cit., p. 81), and it 

 would appear from Mr. Mbbk's use of the term Spirifkr in writings subsequent to 1864, that he also con- 

 eeded tlie ne o wi i ty for its a<loption. 



tleooM Fowilium nectilea, p. 8. 



fSar U Cboristite, p. 7. 



