144 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Dec. 17, 



each confided to me some years since. So also Geinitz and Beinert 

 eliminated E. striata of Silesia from amongst the mollusks. 



Count Miinster's specimens came from the Lower Carboniferous 

 shales near Hof, Bavaria ; De Koninck's from the same horizon at 

 Vise, Belgium. The many specimens that have come under my 

 notice differ, for the most part, in some slight degree as to their 

 outline ; and, as they belong to several different localities, and to 

 different horizons in the Lower and Upper Carboniferous formations, 

 I have regarded these slightly different features as of varietal im- 

 portance. Thus, E. striata, as recorded by Goldfuss and De Koninck, 

 serving as the type, we have a very similar form from Silesia (Lower 

 Coal-measures, Beinert), from Lancashire (Middle Coal-measures and 

 upper part of the Lower Coals, Binney), and from Lanarkshire (Lower 

 Coal-measures, Binney). This is distinguished as E. striata, var. 

 Beinertiana, after Dr. Beinert of Charlottenbrunn, who collected the 

 Silesian specimens in the Lower Coal-measures at Volpersdorf , in the 

 Duchy of Glatz. E. striata, var. Tateana, less oblique in shape, is 

 from the Lower Carboniferous shale at Lammerton on the Berwick- 

 shire coast, where Mr. G. Tate, F.G.S., found it abundantly in oue 

 bed, with remains of Plants, Fishes, and Cypridce*. Occasional 

 evidence of reticulate structure accompanies these Esiherim, and 

 among them are individuals with the subquadrate or suborbicular 

 valves above referred to. 



Estheria striata, var. Binney ana, has a fine large carapace with ob- 

 long valves, and occupies a shale found (by Mr. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S.) 

 near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and lying between the Winnmoor Coal, 

 below, and the Black Shale or Silkstone bed, above (distant about 

 70 yards). 



With regard to the possibly freshwater or marine character of 

 Estheria striata, as indicated by its associates, leaving out the Fishes 

 as altogether doubtful witnesses, I can only say that, excepting the 

 occasional proximity of those dubiously marine forms, the Anthraeosice 

 and Anihracomyas, and the presence of Spirorhis at Lammerton, sea- 

 shells are wanting in the shales and cannel-coal in which this 

 Estheria has been found. As for the presence of Spirorbis, Sir C. Lyell 

 has before now pointed out that the occasional influx of salt water 

 into a marshy jungle can destroy terrestrial vegetation, and leave, on 

 retiring, SerpulcB and Cirripedia attached to the stems t. 



3. Estheria tenella, Jordan, sp., is the true Estherian species to 

 which I have alluded above as occurring in the Carboniferous strata, 

 and fit to stand as the young of E. striata, had we the evidence of 

 collocation and gradational conditions of growth to support the 

 supposition. 



I have not, however, seen them in the same bed, and the largest 



* One specimen only of these Cyprids is sufficiently preserved even for partial 

 examination. To indicate its seeming alliance, and the circumstance of its dis- 

 covery, I have named it (in the Appendix to my Monograph on Fossil Estheria) 

 Candonal Tateana. 



t Some of the so-called Spirorbes and Microconchi found in the Coal-measures 

 have of late been looked upon by Continental palaeontologists as being possibly 

 due to minute parasitic plants. 



