CHARACTEKS OF EUELEPHAS. 147 



also, along with the transverse puckers, to abut the cement 

 firmly against the enamel-plates, and diminish its liability 

 to splinter during the process of trituration. This chan- 

 nelling is most strongly marked in the species which have 

 thick plates of enamel ; and when the plates are denuded of 

 cement, the ribs between the channels simulate the appear- 

 ance of cords. 3rd. Flexure of the plates transversely. This 

 is presented under two forms : first, primary flexures, where 

 the plates are folded upon themselves by numerous minute 

 plicatures, closely applied to each other, and communicating 

 a continuous zigzag appearance to the worn edge of the 

 enamel, on both sides ; this is the character to which Cuvier 

 applied the term ' festooning,' and here called ' crimping ' or 

 ' plaiting ' ; second, secondary flexures, caused by the outline 

 of the ivory-cores upon which the enamel-plates are moulded, 

 and by the confluence of the discs of the separate digitations, 

 according to the stage of wear of the teeth. 



The presence or absence of the crimping is very constant 

 in the different species, and very significant as a distinctive 

 mark. Of all the species, fossil and recent, it is most marked 

 in the existing Indian Elephant, 1 in which the crowns of the 

 molars are comparatively narrow; and ordinarily it is entirely 

 wanting in E. primigenius, in which they are broad. 2 The 

 former belongs to the Stenocoronine type of Euelephas, the 

 latter to the Eurycoronine type. The effect which is brought 

 about in the Mastodons by the crowding of the mammillae so 

 as to present alternate and outlying tubercles, and in the 

 African Elephant by the mesial rhomboidal expansion, is in 

 the Indian Elephant accomplished by the numerous small 

 plicatures of the enamel-plates. If these were unfolded, and 

 the plates drawn out to the extent thus gained, the molars 

 of the Indian species would be fully as broad, if not broader 

 than in the Mammoth. Both species, although differing so 

 importantly in these two characters of crimping and breadth 

 of crown, agree in one respect — that, although presenting 

 more or less of secondary flexures, the discs of wear are of 

 nearly uniform width across ; neither of them, as a general 

 rule, exhibits any tendency to a mesial loop or to angular 

 expansion; whereas in E. {Euelephas) antiguus, which has 

 hitherto been so generally confounded with the Mammoth, 

 the molars present the threefold difference of narrow crowns, 

 with crimped enamel, and a certain amount of mesial rhom- 

 boidal expansion of the discs of wear. 3 This species, in fact, 

 represents among the Euelephantes what the existing African 

 Elephant does among the Loxodons. The difference of 



4 PI. viii. fig. 3.— [Ed.] 2 PI. viii. fig. 4.— [Ed.] * P1 ; x ,_r ED i 



l 2 



