BRACHIOPODA. 



125 



lata, Hall {=^Orbiculoidea Forbesi, Nicholson (not D;ividsoii)=Z). dara, Spencer,= 

 Z). so//torm, Ringueberg), from the Niagara, D.Conradi, Hall, and D. discus. Hall, 

 from the Lower Heklerberg, D ampla. Hall, from the Oriskany sandstone, D. 

 minuta. Hall, from the Marcellus shales, D. media. Hall, D. grandis, Vanuxem, D. 

 humilis. Hall, D. Randalli, Hall, D. Doria, Hall, D. marginalis, Whitfield, from the 

 Hamilton group, D. Lodensis, Vanuxem, from the Genesee shales, D. pleurites, 

 Meek, from the Waverly, D. Newberryi, Hall, from the Cuyahoga shales, D. nitida, 

 Phillips, D. Manhattanensis , Meek and Hayden, from the Coal Measures, and 

 many additional species, with several unidentified, probably undescribed forms 

 from various horizons. 



The pedicle-perforation in these fossils is not, as usually represented, a simple, 

 elongate fissure, extending from beneath the apex, one-third, one-half or the 

 entire distance to the posterior mai'gin. On the contrary, just behind the apex, 

 and removed from it by a distance varying with the stage of growth of the 

 animal, is the external opening of a perforation, which passes very obliquely 

 backward through the substance of the shell and opens on the interior surface 

 not fiir from, but within the margin of the shell, having thus precisely the re- 



no. 6:J. Vertical section of the pedicle- 

 I'alve of Discina striata. 

 After Davidson. 



Fig. 01. Vertical sectiou of the peiiicle- 

 valve of Orbiculoidea. 



verse position to that of Discina striata as given by Davidson,* whose figure is 

 here copied, but very much greater obliquity. 



On the external surface of the pedicle-valve, the pedicle-groove, which begins 

 at the ajDex, intersects more or less abrupth' the usual concentric ornamenta- 

 tion of the shell, but it is very narrow, and its surface generally smooth or 

 with faint indications of growth-lines. In all instances this furrow begins at 

 the apex ; its length, however, in any given species, will, as just noticed, depend 

 on the stage of growth, for the pedicle-aperture evidently keeps the same rela- 

 tive distance from the apex in all periods of development. This portion of the 



* Trans. Linne.an Soc, vol. iv. pt. 1, pi. 25, fig. 26. 188!<. 



