352 PEOCEEDIKGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [March 8, 



to palaeontologists, he would doubtless have placed the strata he has 

 described in the Upper rather than the Lower Greensand horizon, 

 and wotdd have considered them Cenomanian rather than Neocomian. 



3. The Rarity of described Prenummulitic Echinoderms in Asia. — 

 The Echinodermata are so numerous in both collections that they at 

 once attract attention ; this communication therefore refers especially 

 to them. 



There have been but few Echinoderms described from any strata 

 in Asia below the Nummulitic, and only nine species have been 

 carefully determined. Of these, two are from the Cretaceous rocks 

 of Sinai, and the others were described by Professor Edward Porbes 

 in his essay on the fossils of Southern India*. Generic names 

 of the specimens from Bagh and South-eastern Arabia have been 

 suggested by Drs. Oldhamf and Carter J respectively; but their 

 necessarily superficial examination did not produce satisfactory 

 results. 



The Eas Fartak and the Eas Sharwen Echinoderms add seven 

 species to the Asiatic list ; and their study is the key to the deter- 

 mination of the Bagh collection, which affords four species, one of 

 which is in the Arabian collection. The united collections have a 

 well-marked facies, and present the same general hkeness to Euro- 

 pean forms from a well-studied locality, which was also noticed to 

 occur by Professor Eorbes with regard to certain Cephalopoda in 

 Southern India. Dr. Carter having personally collected the South- 

 eastern Arabian specimens prevents any doubt being thrown on 

 their bond fide nature ; and the same remark may be made with 

 regard to the Bagh series, Capt. Keatinge being responsible for their 

 having been found in the strata he termed Cretaceous. The marked 

 nature of the facies, and the identity of most of the species with 

 well-known forms from Western Europe, render it necessary that 

 there should be no doubt on the subject of the localities whence the 

 specimens were derived. The collections, as a whole, may be ascribed 

 to an horizon comprehended between the Gault and the " chalk-with- 

 flints " in Europe ; and they refer very faintly to the Echinoderms 

 from Southern India, and in like manner to the forms from the 

 North American Cretaceous rocks. 



4. List of the Species of Echinoderms in the Collections. — The fol- 

 lowing is a list of the species, with their synonyms and localities : — 



Ras FartaJc and Ras Sharwen, South-eastern Arabia, 



1. Ciclaris Cenomanensis, Cotteau Yvre-L'Eveque 1 specimen. 



2. Pseudodiadema Roemeri, ZJesoJ" f Plasner Inferieur ofl n 



Tetragramma depressum, i?oemer ... \ Hildesheim J specimens. 



3. Salenia scutigera, Gray ^ 



Cidaris scutigera, Munster | Le Mans, Martignes, "l 



Salenia personata, i9e/»" \- Minorca, War- I 2 specimens. 



scripta, Agassis minster J 



petalifera, Bronn j 



* " Fossil Invertebrata from Southern India," Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd ser. vol. 

 TJi. p. 97. t Op. cit. p. 11. X Op. cit. p. 604. 



