248 PALEONTOLOGY OF NEW YORK. 



mon fossil in the upper horizon of the Hudson River group in the Ohio valley. 

 Rafinesque himself, did not define his genus Strophomenes in any American 

 worlv until the publication of his tract of October, 1831,* where it appears in 

 the following terms : 



" Strophomenes, Raf Equilateral, hinge broad, great valve notched by a 

 lunulate sinus receiving a lunulate projection from the smaller valve." 



In a tract published in Philadelphia in November, 1831, entitled, "Enumera- 

 tion and Account of some remarkable Natural Objects in the Cabinet of Prof. 

 Rafinesque in Philadelphia," p. 4,f the descriptions of the following species 

 under Strophomenes are given : 



"Strophomenes, Raf, 1820. See tract of October [1831]. 1. Str. levigata. Very 

 smooth, longer valve convex, lower valve concave, corners acute, not auricu- 

 lated ; contour arched and even. Length, 4-5 of the breadth. Kentucky 

 limestone. 2. Sir. flexilis. Very thin, lower valve hardly concave, with minute 

 curved strias ; upper valve convex, with minute fiexuose strias, corners acute 

 subauriculate. Length and breadth equal. Limestone of Ohio, 1 or 2 inches." 



In the absence of illustrations the descriptions of these species are too mea- 

 ger to allow of their identification. So far as known the name Strophomenes 

 does not again occur in the writings of M. Rafinesque, and since these species 

 have not subsequently been recognized or farther defined, the term Strophom- 

 enes, Rafinesque, in this connection can not be retained. 



In 1846, King J considered S. rugosa as congeneric with Leptccna alternata, 

 Conrad. Sharpe,§ in 1848, takes Orthis umbraculum, Schlotheim, as the typical 

 species of Strophomena, including the O. crenistria, of Phillips, thus making 



* The title of this tract is as follows : " Continuation of a Monograph of the Bivalve Shells of the River 

 Ohio, and other Rivers of the Western States. By Prof C. S. Rafinesque. (PiMished at Brussels, Sf^j- 

 tembei; 1820.) Containin"^ 46 species, from No. 76 to No. 121. Including an Ajipendix on some Bivalve Shells 

 of the Rivers of Hindostan, with a Supplement]! on the Fossil Shells of the Western States, and the Tulosites, 

 a new genus of fossils. Philadelphia, October, 1831." 



t Binney and Tryon's Rex'rint, p. G9. 



I Annals of Natural History, vol. xviii, p. 36. 



§ Quarterly Journal Geological Society, vol. iv, p. 78. 



II In this tract he refers to the Monograph which he had sent to Brussels for publication in the "Journal de Physique," and 

 writes : " I propose to give an epitome of this Monograph wiiich I have not seen in i)rint. I possess nearly all the shells." 

 Then follows a list of the genera which he had there propo.sed under the order Br.\chioi'H ; numbering altogether 

 twenty-three generic terms. 



