500 Dr. John Lycett — Note on Purjniroid SheJh. 



The figures of the French Great Oolite species given by M. Piette 

 are \evy well executed. They are all more nearly allied to the 

 British Great Oolite forms than are those of the Corallian rocks 

 figured by M. Buvignier, and I will now also add, than the two 

 Corallian forms previously figui^ed by Sowerhy, and by Young and 

 Bird ; they are, however, perfectly distinct forms, and will be 

 readily admitted as such by any one conversant with, the British. 

 Great Oolite species. 



I will now offer some remarks upon the Purpuroid shells figured 

 by Mr. Hudleston upon Plate YIII. of this Magazine for 1880. The 

 figures 1, 2, and 4 are assigned by Mr. Hudleston to the Murex nodulatus 

 of Young and Bird. These figures are fairly well executed. I have 

 also the advantage of possessing a large specimen of the same form 

 kindly forwarded to me by Mr. Hudleston ; this example possesses 

 a large portion of the test of the last volution, exhibiting the pattern 

 of the ornamentation. I have also succeeded in developing the 

 aperture, and especially the posteal portion, and thus prove that it 

 does not possess the internal groove of Purpura above alluded to. 

 Having also a recollection of the type specimen of Murex nodulatus of 

 Young and Bird, in the Whitby Museum, examined by me many 

 years ago, I am enabled to form an opinion upon that specimen, and 

 to arrive at the conclusion that the brief description appended to 

 the specimen in the second edition of that work (1828) is sufficiently 

 accurate for general purposes, and that the perpendicular undulations 

 upon the dorsal surface, each with its two nodes or tubercles, are 

 very characteristic of the species, and sufficiently distinct from the 

 handsome and elaborately ornamented shell represented by the 

 Figures 1, 2, and 4, PI. VIII. of this Magazine, and by the specimen 

 received from Mr. Hudleston. Holding this opinion, I submitted 

 the specimen and figures to an old friend of mine, an eminent 

 palaeontologist, who was about to visit Whitby, and gladly accepted 

 his offer to examine for me Young and Bird's type specimen ; he 

 also has the advantage of possessing a perfect knowledge of the 

 Gloucestershire Purpuroidea. In sending to me a careful tracing of 

 the Buccinum flammeum (so-called in the first edition of Young and 

 Bird's book), he says, "I saw the original specimen at Whitb}^ it is 

 a rough, customer, and quite distinct from the beautiful shell you 

 showed me, the undulations are so marked in Young and Bird's 

 specimen." I would suggest, therefore, that the materials we possess 

 relating to the remarkable specimens of Purpuroidea, Plate VIII. 

 Figs. 1, 2, and 4, are scarcely sufficient to determine the species 

 with certainty, but that apjDarently they represent a new, very 

 handsome, and very variable example of that genus to which Mr. 

 Hudleston's name might appropriately be attached. 



I will also state that I have become convinced of the distinctness 

 of all the Yorkshire Corallian forms of Purpuroidea from those of 

 the same genus in Gloucestershire, and therefore that the Great 

 Oolite Purpuroidea ascribed to the P. nodidata of Young and Bird 

 was an erroneous identification, excusable I think, when the great 

 variability of the Great Oolite species is considered, and due 



