224 Mr. S. S. Bnckman on 



eight of tliese Dr. Vaughan admits are fringed Atliyrids— 

 and I agree. I claim, however, that the alleged T. pentaedra 

 is also a fringed Athyrid in imperf(!Ct preservation ; and 

 Dr. Vanglian's statement (p. 196) that tlie remaining speci- 

 men in the series, which he says " approaches closely to the 

 [alleged! type," does exhibit glabristriation supports this 

 view. My contention is that these two specimens supplement 

 one another ; that they belong to a series of globose fringed 

 Athyrids not yet generically distinguished ; that they are 

 allied, as the characters of their beak-regions show, to the 

 glahr i stria- Roy sii forms ; and that they are generically 

 separable from S. amhiguus by their beak-region characters. 

 J have examined many specimens of S. amhiguus, some of 

 which Dr. Vaughan kindly sent me ; and the terebratuloid 

 contour of the beak-region is very distinctive. 



Composita. 



The terebratuloid appearance of S. amhiguus struck 

 Sowerby (Min. Conch, iv. p. 105), and the combination o£ 

 Terehratula and Spirifer characters in the shell caused hira 

 to give a hint about constructing a new genus for it. Brown 

 took the hint, and emphasized the composite character in 

 liis name. Dr. Vaughan says (p. 197) that Brown's figures 

 represent Spirifer glaher : he gives as reasons the large size, 

 the shape, and other characters. Brown's figures, however, 

 are exactly the same size and shape as the larger of 

 the syntypes figured in Sowerby's plate : in fact, Brown's 

 figures are obviously made out of the details given by the 

 four figures of Sowerby — the size and shape are taken from 

 the larger figures, and the characters of the smaller figures 

 have been enlarged to fit. Brown's fig. 4 (Foss. Conch, 

 pi. liv.*) is obviously based on a tracing of the middle figure 

 of Sowerby's plate : then the valve has been depicted from 

 the outside — the details, even to a bit of coil seen through a 

 break, being taken from the N.E. fig. of Sowerby's plate 

 (Min. Conch, iv. pi. 376). 



It is hardly necessary to pursue any further the idea that 

 Brown figured S. glaher in this case ; but in his pi. li. it 

 may be seen how differently he did represent it. 



Type Specimens. 



Scepticism with regard to the identity of alleged type 

 specimens is necessary, as I have shown before f. A case 

 in point now concerns a (Jarboniferous species. In the 

 t Ann. & Mag. Xat. Hist. (7) vol. xiv. p. .392 (1904). 



