268 



NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF CYSTIDEA. 



[1854. 



north and north-east Africa (which may still be referred to their 

 native home in Asia) from the numerous other languages of this 

 enigmatical continent; and I am now engaged in preparing these 

 philological investigations for special publication. 



I must finally mention, among the results of our journey, two 

 collections of inscriptions. In the first place, all the Greek in- 

 scriptions in the countries we travelled through were carefully 

 sought out, and impressions of them were taken upon paper; by 

 ■which Grseuo-Egyptian archaeology, and more particularly the 

 learned collections of inscriptions which have lately excited such 

 lively interest, will probably be completed, confirmed, or justified 

 in a satisfactory manner. Secondly, in the peninsula of Sinai we 

 made as perfect a collection as was possible of the so-called Sinaitic 

 Inscriptions, which are found engraved on the rocks in different 

 districts of the peninsula, but principally in the neighbourhood of 

 the old town of Faran, at the foot of the mountain range of Ser- 

 bal, and at a resting-place of the caravans in Wadi Mokatteb, 

 situated further north, which is named after them. 



We were only able casually to turn our attention to objects of 

 natural science. Nevertheless I did not, however, neglect, espe- 

 cially during remote mountainous journeys, to collect speciirfens 

 of stone and earth from the more remarkable localities. We 

 not only visited the celebrated stone quarries in the chalk moun- 

 tains of Tura, in the sandstone range of Selseleh, in the granite 

 rocks of Assuan, and others situated in the Nile valley, but also 

 those alabaster quarries of El Bosra, opposite Siut, which were 

 discovered a few years ago by the Bedouins, in which last we found 

 a rock inscription from the commencement of the 17th dynasty. 

 They resemble those quarries of granite and brecciaverde at Ham- 

 mamat, upon the road leading from Qeneh to the Bed Sea, 

 which have been worked from the earliest times, and also the 

 porphyry and granite quarries at Gebel Fatireh (Mons Claudi- 

 anus) and at Gebel Dochan (Mons Porphyrites), in the Arabian 

 chain of mountains, celebrated in the Roman period. I had 

 also an opportunity of purchasing an interesting ethnographical 

 and natural history collection in Alexandria, obtained by H. 

 Werne during Mohammed Ali's second expedition up the Nile, 

 which penetrated as far as 4° north latitude, of which an account 

 was published ; and I received a valuable collection of Egyptian 

 fishes for the Anatomical Museum in Berlin, from the celebrated 

 French physician, Clot Bey. 



On some new Genera and Species of Cystidea from the 

 Trenton Limestone. 



By E. Billings, Barrister at Law, Bytown, Canada West. 



SECOND PAPER. 

 Bead before the Canadian Institute, April Stk, 1854. 

 GENUS COMAROCYSTITES. 



When deeply imbedded in the rock, and without the column, 

 arms, or ovarian aperture being visible, the fossil for which the 

 above generic name is proposed, might, upon a superficial exami- 

 nation, be readily mistaken for a coral. When entirelv separated 

 from the matrix, and not compressed, or otherwise distorted, it 

 has the form and general appearance of a large strawberry. 



It is of an oval shape, the smaller end being the base where 

 the stem is attached, and the larger extremity the summit, in the 

 centre of which is situated the elongated mouth. Two very young 

 specimens are each about three quarters of an inch in length, and 

 a large one pressed quite flat and lying embedded in the rock 



about two inches. The whole surface is covered over with hexa- 

 gonal or pentagonal pits rounded at the bottom, each one of 

 which marks the area of a concave or deeply depressed plate. 



Upon the upper joint of the column stand three low but broad 

 pentagonal plates, with serrated edges above. These form a nar- 

 row circular pelvis, and are so closely united at their sides that it 

 is difficult to detect the lines of division between them. There 

 are generally two rows of small irregular plates varying in size and 

 number, in different specimens, between the pelvis and the com- 

 mencement of the regular hexagonal plates. 



Resting on two of the small plates on the ovarian side is the base 

 of an upright row of four large ones, the lowest of which is hep- 

 tagonal, the two next six-sided, and the fourth pentagonal. From 

 the pointed apex of the latter the suture between two others pro- 

 ceeds to the lower side of the ovarian aperture. This arrangement 

 is well marked in all the individuals in which the posterior side 

 remains entire. It may therefore be regarded as a permanent 

 character of the genus. A line drawn from the centre of the base 

 upwards along theje four plates, through the centre of the ovarial 

 orifice, between the two arms hereafter to be described, and through 

 the mouth to the opposite side of the summit, and thence to the 

 base on the anterior side, would divide the fossil into two equal 

 parts. It appears thus to have had a bilateral symmetry. 



From each side of this upright column of plates on the ovarian 

 side the principal plates of the body run round the fossil in rows 

 nearly horizontal. There are from eight to eleven of those rows, 

 including the pelvic series. 



Near the summit is an opening closed by a valvular apparatus 

 of five or six triangular- plates — probably the ovarian aperture. 

 In the specimen (Fig. 3) it is obtusely pentagonal, and three-six- 

 teenths of an inch in diameter. In several other specimens there 

 are six ovarian valves, but in this there are apparently only five. 

 They all meet in the centre of the orifice and project a little out- 

 wards, so as to form a low dome-shaped prominence, through the 

 apex of which there is a small perforation, which seems to be 

 formed by the truncation of the apiees of all the plates. This 

 perforation is not visible in the two specimens figured, because 

 in these the upper portions of the plates are in a mutilated condi- 

 tion in this particular part, but in several others not so perfect, in 

 other respects, it can be seen. 



A similar provision is described as forming a feature of the re- 

 productive organ in several of the ahead) 7 known species of Cys- 

 tida?. Of Spkeronites Von Buch states, " Lower down, but on 

 the same hemisphere with the mouth, occurs a large pyramidal 

 orifice, closed with five or more, rarely six valves, which is the 

 ovarial opening; on the top of each of these valves is a small ori- 

 fice piercing quite through the valve, and possibly the eggs were 

 extruded from these orifices, since the valves themselves are never 

 found open." (Quart, Jour. Geo. Soc, Vol. 2, page 30.) At 

 page 39 in the 'same article in his description of Cryptocrinites 

 cerasus, he says, " The mouth is proboscidiform, and covered 

 with very small plates. The ovarial orifice is covered with five 

 small valves, rarely preserved, arranged like a star, and in each of 

 the valves is a small orifice open to the interior of the plates, as 

 in Sphcronites, but situated exactly in the middle of the valve, and 

 probably serving for the protrusion of the eggs." Professor Hall 

 has also figured this small orifice in the ovarian pyramid of Api- 

 ocyslites elegans. (Pal. N. Y. Vol. 2, Plate 51, Fig. 13.) 



Our fossil is closely allied to Spheronites, which are nearly 

 spherical cystideans covered like this by a great number of plates, 

 with the mouth also situated en the summit, and the ovarian 



