64 SYRIAN MOLLUSCAN FOSSILS. 



These specimens coincide with d'Orbigny's figures of 0. Boussingauttii 

 d'Orb. (Paleont. Fran;;- Terr. Cret.. Ill, p. 702, PI. cccclxviii), and with Con- 

 rad's figures of two very imperfect valves to which he gives the same name 

 (Official Report, p. 213, PI. ii, figs. 10, 11). But that species was regarded by 

 d'Orbigny as " propre aux couches inferieures de l'etage neoeomien " (loc. 

 cit.), of the existence of which formation in the Lebanon region there is at 

 present no evidence. D'Orbigny says also of the species as compared with 

 flabellata : " Les rapports sont si intimes que je n'aurais pas balance a reunir 

 ces deux especes, si elles avaient appartenu a la meme couche ; mais 

 V 0. Boussingauttii se trouvant dans l'etage neoeomien, elle est separee de 

 YO. flabellata par les etages aptien et albien qui ne la renferment pas; 

 aussf est-il impossible d'en suivre la filiation." (loc. cit.) 



Lartet affirms (Expl. Geol. de la Mer Morte, p. 138) that the Oysters from 

 Kerak, east of the Dead Sea. identified by Conrad and Fraas (Aus dem 

 Orient, I. Theil. p. 86) as 0. Boussingauttii, are in reality 0. flabellata. In the 

 second part of the same work, p. 70, Fraas, influenced perhaps by Lartet's 

 opinion, for which he always manifests great respect, assigns to the species 

 flabellata the related Oysters found in Lebanon. 



Out of deference to these views, I have named my specimens as above, 

 with some doubt, which is not diminished by the fact that Zittel assigns 

 0. Boussingauttii to the subgenus Ampkidonta, and 0. flabellata to the subgenus 

 Exogyra .' Coll. .Merrill. 



Local//// //ml Position. — From the Beirut district. Fraas refers 0. flabellata 

 to the zone of Ammonites Syriacus, or the Middle Turonian. 



UNDETERMINED. 



The cast from the Merrill collection, represented in Plate IV b}^ figures 

 4 a, b, is certainly not a Lurimi. In the projection upon the posterior (?) 

 part of each valve (largesl on the right), fig. 4 b, it approaches Arcopagia, for 

 example the species remies Linn.; Out 1 am not prepared to refer it to that 

 group. 



