■ÖFVERSIGT AP K. VETBNSK.-AKAD. PÖRHANDLIN(JAR 1895, N:0 ». (JlU 



■or even carelessness of receiit autliors have coined in flagrant 

 violation of the rules of priority, so clearly laid down by several 

 assemblies of men of high authority in natural science. We 

 shall see that this is the case with yet more of the Linnean 

 species. A proceeding such as this ought to meet with a more 

 general condemnation than unfortunateiy it usually does. When 

 Dr Weissermel in the above cited treatise, relying on the 

 authority of Prof. Koken says that this species is a Lower 

 Silurian one, he niust be greatly mistaken, unless it can be 

 proved that the specimen, which Prof. Koken thought he saw in 

 the quarries of Borkholm belongs to the same species. I cannot 

 find that the differences between the specimens described by 

 Dybowski and Weissermel are so important as to necessitate 

 a separation into difFerent varieties. The rieh material, which 

 I have brought to the museum of Stockholm sufficiently shows 

 the nice shades of variability. I have placed it in the genus 

 Ptychophyllum in consequence of its interiör structure, which 

 entirely agrees with that of Pt. truncatum and patellatum. 



I can not find a clue to determine which fossil is intended 

 by fig. XVIII, which Linn^us describes as a variety of M. 

 stellaris. The specimen must have been a very bad one and 

 the figure is, mereover, badly drawn. To judge by the descrip- 

 tion it might well have been an often occuring variety of 

 Ptychophyllum stellare with short internodia. The figure, again, 

 shows calicles with a columella: in fact, I do not know of any 

 Gotland coral at all resembling it. 



P. 25, N:o VI. Madrepora composita, corporibus proUferis 

 e eentro solitariis tnemhrana reßexa coadunatis stellatis. Fig. 

 VI and n. 1. 



1749 » » Am. Ac. I, 96. 



1758 Madrepora Organum S. N. ed. X, 796. 



1761 » » F. Su. ed. II, 536. 



1767 » » S. N. ed. XII, 1278 with some 



alterations in the description. 



Öfvers. af K. Vet.-Akad. Förh. 1895. Arg. 52. N:o 9. 3 



