GENERA AKD GROTJPS OF THE ECHINOIDEA. 2G5 



The Spatangus referred by Dr. Wright to 8. ocellatus, Desor, 

 from Malta, is a true Lovenia.^ 



* The jumble which some palfeontologists have made of Lovenia, Sarsella, 

 Maretia, and Hemipatagus is great. It is necessary, in the first instance, to 

 consider Sarsella mwuritanica, Pomel, quoted by M. Cotteau, Ech. foss. de 

 I'Alger. fasc. ix. 1885, p. 36, pi. i. M. Pouiel diagnosed Sarsella as a sub- 

 genus of Lovenia without the internal swellings of the test. It has been 

 shown that this character depends upon the thickness of the tests and is 

 not more than of specific value. On page 37 M. Cotteau tells us that 

 '•' Les fascioles [in the species under consideration] ne sont visibles sur 

 aucun de nos examplaires, et malgre I'obliteration des pores, pres du 

 sommet, nous ne sommes pas absoluraent certains qu'il y ait eu un fasciole 

 interne. . , . Aussi avons nous longtemps hesite au sujet de I'attribution 

 generique de cette espece au genre Sarsella ou au genre Maretia." Further 

 on M. Cotteau states : — " M. Pomel tout en rapellant en tete de sa description, 

 que son genre Sarsella est muni de ce fasciole, n'affirme pas nettement I'avoir 

 distingue sur ces excm^laires, et il n'en donne aucun detail." Now, although 

 M. Cotteau had this knowledge before him, he did not put the subgenus 

 on one side, but recognized it as a genus. The palaeontologists, Messrs. 

 Etheridge, McCoy, T. Woods, and the author of this Revision, who 

 examined and described the Australian Lovenim and classified them, have 

 then little to thank MM. Pomel and Cotteau for, in removing their well- 

 established genus and species to a subgenus or genus which has not had 

 its type sufficiently defined to be of the slightest value. One would have 

 thought that the absence of fascioles and the general appearance of the African 

 species would have been of some weight when M. Cotteau. after doubting 

 between Lovenia, Sarsella, and Maretia, thought of Hemipatagus, Desor, as a 

 possible genus. He considers, however, that the resemblance is " assez loin," and 

 adds that the two types belong to different horizons, and in fact are very easily 

 distinguished. He then gives the distinctions to be the variation in the number 

 of the large interradial tubercles, their being higher up in the African form, 

 and this is also less swollen. Now these are no distinctions ; and from 

 Humbert's usual good drawing there can be little doubt that an internal 

 fasciole never was present in many, that the petals are unlike those of Lovenia, 

 and that there is great doubt about a subanal fasciole. 



Sarsella therefore is not a good group, and whilst some of its species would 

 be true Lovenim, such as the Australian, the type S. mauritanica, Pomel, is a 

 Hemipatagus. 



M. Pomel has found out that Breynia sulcata, Haime, is a Sarsella. He has 

 never seen the type, and I have had that advantage, and have not the slightest 

 doubt that he is mistaken, and that it is one of the most typical of the genus 

 Breynia. 



