Genus Latirus, 369 



In 1 88 1 the late Mr. George W. Tryon, junr., treated of 

 the genera in Vol III. of his Manual of Conchology, adopting 

 Kobelt's treatise as the basis of his work ; but in many 

 ways drawing his own conclusions. To this I will refer 

 later, in a separate paragraph. 



IV. Derivation of Name. — Latirus. — " Le Latire," as 

 de Montfort himself, the author, calls it, has been spelt (by 

 P. P. Carpenter, for instance), Lathirus or Lathyrus — on the 

 assumption that it was derived from Xa^fupoc, a pea, the 

 brown shells perhaps suggesting a faint likeness to a ripe 

 pod. A new solution has proposed itself to me, which I 

 mention with all reserve, " lateritius," of or belonging to a 

 brick, from the warm, sundried brick colour of some species, 

 especially the type, L. Gibbulus* (Gmelin). 



Peristernia is evidently derived from Trtpt orrepvoc, in 

 allusion to the banding round the whorls, the same idea 

 being intended in the names Fasciolaria and Leucozo7iia. 



(V.) Fossil Forms. — Only twenty or thirty fossil forms 

 of this genera are known to Woodward : first making their 

 appearance in the chalk, and, more abundantly, in the 

 Tertiary Deposits of some parts of the world. A great 

 many have been recently described by Prof Ralph Tate, in 

 his Treatise on the Gasteropods of the older Tertiary of 

 Australiaf ; and likewise by Von Kaenen.J According to 

 Fischer, all the various forms of the genus, as at present 

 known, in the recent state, have their fossil analogues. — 

 Doubtless many species at present called FusuSy Murex^ or 

 Fasciolaria^ cf F uniplicata from the Eocene (Germany), 



* It is curious that in all the editions of Woodward's Manual, this species, 

 figured rightly as the representative of the genus, should invariably be misspelt 

 GilbuluSf both in the letter-press and plate-reference. Errata seldom run 

 through several editions without being detected. 



+ Trans. Royal Socs. Australia X, pp. 91 — 176, with 15 plates, 1889. 



X Das Nord Deutschen^ Unter Oligocdjiy u. Seine Mollusken Faune^ 1889. 



