﻿336 DE. L. MOTSET ON VETACAPSULA FROM THE [Aug. 1910, 



spaces equivalent to the width of the most perfect bands, that is, 

 3 mm., it is found that forty bands would be necessary to make up 

 the fossil. This, however, must be a very rough estimate, owing to 

 our ignorance concerning the true diameter of the fossil when 

 uncompressed. The above-mentioned twenty-six segments counted 

 on the specimen would agree closely enough with this estimate, 

 if it be assumed that several segments, showing through from the 

 opposite side, had been taken into account, as may very easily be 

 the case. Each band or segment is smooth, without any sign of 

 ornament, and each one tapers to enter into the beak above and 

 the pedicle below. Here again no trace of carbonaceous material 

 is found between the fossil and its counterpart. 



Dr. Kidston has kindly lent me two specimens for description 

 here. One, a plaster cast of a specimen from Coalbrookdale, the 

 original of which is now in the British Museum (Natural History), 

 agrees so exactly, in measurements and details, with the Newthorpe 

 specimen, that there can be no question as to their identity. The 

 other from Sparth Bottoms, Kochdale (horizon ; Arley Mine Coal), 

 obtained by Mr. W. H. Sutcliffe (PI. XXVI, fig. 1) from an ironstone 

 nodule, presents only a short broad pedicle, the lower part being 

 truncated by the margin of the nodule. The body is more fusiform, 

 there being no sudden expansion of the pedicle into the body, 

 giving rise to a definite shoulder as in the other two specimens. 

 The upper part of the body is still hidden in the matrix. There 

 is a deformity situated in the lower half of the body, but nearer 

 the middle line than in the other two specimens. The body is 

 2'5 cm. broad, and shows seventeen bands or segments, the most 

 perfect of which are 1*75 mm. wide. 



This specimen differs markedly in size and shape from the two 

 preceding examples, but agrees closely in shape with Mackie's 

 figure. It would be unwise, in the present uncertainty as to the 

 nature of these fossils, to multiply species, and it would seem 

 therefore best to include them all under the old specific name, 

 until more light can be thrown on them by the discovery of further 

 specimens. 



There is, too, in Dr. Kidston's possession, a small specimen, col- 

 lected by Mr. W. Hemingway from Brightside, Sheffield, from the 

 rock below the Haigh Moor Coal, preserved on the surface of a 

 piece of shale, which also bears a few pinnules of a Sphenopterid 

 fern. This specimen shows a fusiform body 8 mm. broad, with 

 about nine segments, the breadth of which is about 1 mm. The 

 segments in this case show a slight tendency to a spiral arrange- 

 ment, which, however, may be due to an accident in fossilization. 

 This specimen had better be included under Vetacapsida. 



