492 Pfof. P. Martin Duncan — On Galentes = Echinoconus. 



II. — On the Genus Galbrites = Echixoconus. 

 By Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.E.S., etc. 



IN my former communication to the Geological Magazine ^ on 

 Galerites albogalerus, I gave the results of the examination of 

 the specimens in the British Museum and of many others, and stated 

 that the species was edentulous, and that a true fifth basal (posterior 

 generative plate) was never present. I explained that the so-called 

 jaws were ten buccal plates, that the so-called auricles were raised 

 surfaces in casts, and therefore depressions in the real, and that 

 Cotteau, who had noticed a fifth plate, stated it was exceptional. 

 This fifth plate is absolutely a part of basal plate No. 4 (left posterior 

 generative), and is not a true basal plate. 



Before the paper was sent to the Geological Magazine, M. 

 Cotteau had published a " Description des Echinides fossiles de I'ile 

 de Cuba," in the Ann. de la Soc. Geol. de Beige, t. ix. Memoires. 

 Some months since I saw this interesting and beautifully illustrated 

 paper for the first time, thanks to the distinguished author. 



I regret that I did not see this paper before I wrote the com- 

 munication on Qalerites, not that it interferes with the statements 

 made therein, but because it appears discourteous not to have noticed 

 and considered the interesting paper about the Cuban fossils. More- 

 over, had I seen the paper, there were facts in it which would have 

 required very careful notice. 



I regret the matter all the more because Loven has considered 

 Cotteau's paper very carefully in his wonderful work on Pourtalesia. 

 This work, communicated to the Swedish Academy in 1882, was 

 jDublished in 1883, and I had to thank the author for a copy in 1884 

 — and subsequently to the appearance of my paper in the Geological 

 Magazine. 



Cotteau describes two species of EcMnoconus= Galerites from the 

 Cretaceous of Cuba.^ 



In the diagnosis of this form the apical system is pentagonal and 

 projects ; there are Jive genital plates {basals) broadly perforated, 

 the madreporite is prolonged into the centre of the system, and the 

 ocular plates are small and intercalated at the angles of the genital 

 plates, and are minutely perforated. The generative plates (basals) 

 are separated by the ocidars (radials) and the postero-lateral genera- 

 tive plates are separated by the large madreporite. 



The ambulacral plates have the pores directly superposed abactin- 

 ally, and they are close and show, near the ambitus to the peristome, 

 a more or less pronounced tendency to group themselves in triple 

 pairs. Peristome small, circular, and barely incised. 



Periproct elliptical, I'ather large, placed in the inferior face and 

 very close to the peristome. The shape of the test is tall, circular and 

 globular, the upper face rounded, the lower tumid, and flat near the 

 peristome. 



M. Cotteau says that he placed the little species in the genus 



1 New Series, Decade III. Vol. I. No. 1, p. 10, January, 1884. 

 ^ Galerites Lameri (D'Orbigny), Cotteau, op. cit. p. xi. ng. 7 — 13. 



