8 TYPE AMMONITES— VII Oct. 



1927 



it is at 70 mm. according to Hug's figure : there is so large a margin 

 of difference in these results that there is room for allowance for small 

 errors in measurements or in delineations. 



Sowerby wrote the name of his species strangewaysi : I have 

 ventured to amend this to strangwaysi, because information has been 

 given me that the family name was Strangways, without the e. Such 

 amendment of personal names or of an obvious typographical lapse 

 may be allowed ; but any other alterations in the spelling originally 

 adopted by an author is now generally condemned as an impertinence 

 and a nuisance. To alter an author's spelling from k to c, from o to u, 

 from ei to i, and so on, or vice versa, is pedantic and confusing. To 

 render Greek words with a k is quite useful : it tells at once that the 

 name is taken originally from Greek, and it shows that the pronunciation 

 is to be k, not s. Though the Latin c was pronounced k, it is undesirable 

 to inscribe Latin words with k ; so it is necessary to write concinnus, 

 though this is too often incorrectly pronounced as konsinnus, instead 

 of konkinnus. But if an author happens to have written a genuine 

 Latin word with a k instead of a c, later writers have no business to 

 correct him. 



While on this subject of alterations or amending by later authors 

 it may be desirable to note a practice too frequently indulged in without 

 the least excuse — the alteration, of trivial terms founded on personal 

 names, from endings in anus to i — humphriesianus to humphriesi. 

 Nowadays it is the custom to make trivial names from persons end in 

 i and those from places end in anus ; but it was not the practice of 

 early days, so the early spelling should not be altered. Besides, it 

 could make much trouble : d'Orbigny named two Ammonites after a 

 man called Sauze ; to the first one he applied the trivial term sauzeanus, 

 to the later one, sauzei. To attempt alteration, even if it were justified, 

 would produce confusion, though the two species are not at all alike. 

 But, in certain other cases, because two species were somewhat alike, 

 it was thought desirable to show their relationship by keeping similarity 

 of name — generic terms then not being sufficiently restricted to perform 

 that task. So to relatives of well-known species ending in i were given 

 the same names ending in anus — the body of the words implying 

 connexion, the differences of terminations marking minor distinction. 

 Confusion can only result from any attempts to excise and amend the 

 longer termination. 



Glyptarpites, nov., Genotype G. glyptus, PI. DCCXL. The 

 longitudinal (parallel with the coil of the shell) contour of the broad 

 ribs is shown in fig. 3. In shape it is suggestive of a dipping peneplain 

 sloping forwards, towards the aperture of the conch, with an escarpment- 

 face looking backwards, at the foot of which, and running parallel, is 

 a small narrow (river-like) channel. The peneplain is slightly convex, 

 while the channel is like the mark which would be made by a narrow 

 graver, held askew, cutting out a thin ribbon. Hence the name glyptus. 

 Towards the end of the whorl the broad ribs give place to narrow ribs, 

 so that the graving marks come quite close together. 



The style of the broad ribs has some resemblance to that seen in 

 Paltarpites ; but there the ribs are on a much narrower scale ; while the 

 radial line differs : in Paltarpites the radial line is much more projected 

 on the venter and is less geniculate laterally. 



Murleyiceras and Eleganticeras may be compared with Glyptarpites 

 as to ribbing, but both differ from it in rib-curve and in suture-line. 



