224 Mr. Salter on Palaozoic Fossils from South Africa. 



They are convex and bear pinnse alternately on each side, — the lower joints are 

 transverse and flatter. 



I should have thought this to have been a Rhodocrinus, although it has more 

 brachial pieces, and even more radials on the anterior rays ; but that genus, besides 

 having an equal number of radial pieces in all the rays, is characterized as having 

 compound arms ; our genus has simple arms and unequal radii. It is, however, a 

 close ally of Rhodocrinus ; and I cannot help thinking, with M. Romer, that the 

 five large pieces which in that genus, as in ours, alternate with the first radials are 

 the true basal or pelvic pieces (see Goldfuss's figure of Rhod. crenatus, Petref. 

 Germ. vol. i. pi. 64. fig. 3). 



As we have but one species, and that not quite complete, it was thought better 

 to give a full description rather than a generic character. 



The original specimen is a very complete intagho in dark-coloured sandstone, in 

 the collection of the late Dr. Stanger. The exact locality is not known ; but the 

 specimen was accompanied by Homalonotus Herschelii. Fig. 20 a is taken from a 

 gutta-percha cast. 



Conclusion. 



It will be seen by the palseontological reader, that, of the twenty-seven species 

 here described, all, with two exceptions, belong to genera known in Devonian strata, 

 and some of them to forms of those genera peculiarly characteristic of such rocks. 

 This is especially to be noted in the case of the broad-winged Spiriferi, — the spinose 

 Homalonoti, — the fan-tailed species of Phacops, — and the Tentaculites, which looks 

 so like T. annulatus of the Rhenish Provinces, that it has been identified as such. 



In no other formation can such an association as of the above forms with species 

 of Cucullella, Bellerophon, Conularia, Chonetes, and Strophomena, be discovered ; 

 and hence, in the absence of any true Silurian species, or even of any purely 

 Silurian genus, we are compelled to regard the formation as Devonian. 



Of the two undescribed genera, one {Typhloniscus) is a remarkable Trilobite, so 

 closely resembling a Lower Silurian genus, that it was long before its true cha- 

 racters were made out. Yet, when closely examined, it turns out to be one of the 

 many forms of the family Cheiruridts, — a group especially abundant at or near the 

 base of the Devonian system. 



The other, a Crinoid, which we have called Ophiocrinus, is more nearly related 

 to Devonian forms of Rhodocrinus than to any other. These genera do not there- 

 fore invalidate the above conclusion. 



