131 



UNPUBLISHED PLATES OF THOMAS MARTYN, CONCHOLOGIST. 



By Tom Iredale. 



Read 10th December, 1920. 



The beautiful series of paintings of shells published by Thomas 

 Martyn under the title of The Universal Conchologist have been well 

 discussed during the last twenty years, and it would not seem 

 necessary to add any more literature, save with the record of some 

 additional novelty. In this note I believe such novelty will be found, 

 since I have seen no account of the unpublished paintings prepared 

 under the direction of Thomas Martyn. Ignoring the recent 

 additional notes, I only cite Ball's two papers in the Proc. U.S. 

 Nat. Mus., vol. xxix, pp. 415-32, 1905, and vol. xxxiii, pp. 185-92, 

 1907, where most of the details of interest are published. In his 

 second essay Dall gave the contents of the Explanatory Tables 

 belonging to a copy in the Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S.W., 

 from data forwarded to him by Mr. Chas. Hedley, and commented 

 upon the untrustworthiness of the information given by Chenu 

 previously cited by him. For my own usage I compiled the 

 equivalent data from another copy, and I was surprised to find 

 that my items did not exactly coincide with those published by Dall, 

 All the difierences proved to occur in connexion with volume iv, 

 where Martyn appears to have become tired and careless. Dall 

 concluded that perhaps the discrepancies between the Sydney copy 

 and the Chenu collation were due to the fact that the former was 

 an early issue and the latter taken from a corrected copy. The 

 Sydney volumes may have been early, because in the copy 

 I collated I find better results, though still not in agreement with 

 Chenu's account. I conclude it will be as well to give Dall's data 

 from the Sydney copy and those culled from the other copy in 

 parallel columns : — 



Dall. 



