PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 5 



a large proportion of the specimens described by Phillips in his work on the Palaeozoic 

 Fossils of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset, have been carefully preserved. I am also 

 greatly indebted to the Council of the Geological Society of London for the loan of their 

 valuable series of Devonian fossils, which were collected by Sedgwick and Murchison, 

 De la Beche, Hennah, D. Sharpe, &c, and which have been partly described and figured 

 by J. Sowcrby in the fifth volume, second series, of the ' Transactions of the Geological 

 Society.' I wish also to record my thanks to the officers of the Geological Department of 

 the British Museum, for having allowed me to examine and draw those specimens which were 

 required for the present monograph. Much, however, of the material was contributed 

 from private museums. To Mr. Pengelly my thanks are due for much valuable information, 

 as well as for the loan of his extensive series of Devonshire and Cornwall Brachiopoda. 

 To the Rev. J. E. Lee, of Caerleon, I am indebted for the loan of his important scries of 

 Barton Middle Devonian fossils, and in which are preserved many of the original specimens 

 described and figured by Phillips in the work already named. My sincere thanks are 

 likewise due to Mr. R. Stewart, Hon. Sec. of the Torquay Natural History Society ; to 

 Mr. Vicary, of Exeter ; Mr. Champernowne, of Dartington Hall, Totness, Devonshire ; to 

 Mr. W.Walton, of Bath ; Mr. C. Spence Bate, of Plymouth ; Mr. R. H. Valpy, of Ilfracombe ; 

 Mr. F. M. Hall, of Barnstaple ; Mr. Symons, of Braunton ; the Rev. F. Mules, of Marwood ; 

 Professor Phillips, of Oxford ; Mr. Salter, and others, for much information and the loan of 

 their fossils. Many specimens are also preserved in the Cambridge Museum, as well as in 

 the museums of different local institutions in Cornwall and Devonshire, sucli as that of 

 Taunton, which contains the collection of the late Rev. D. Williams, the Bristol Institution, 

 that of Plymouth, Torquay, Truro, &c. I am also greatly indebted to Professor L. de 

 Koninck, F. Roemer, and to Mr. Bouchard, for the comparison they have kindly made of 

 some of our British Devonian species with those of the Continent. 



Before proceeding further, it may be as well to mention that in the last edition of 

 Professor Morris's e Catalogue of British Fossils,' published in 1854, some ninety-four 

 species (?) of British Devonian Brachiopoda have been enumerated, but it will be found 

 by the sequel that a certain number of these Avill have to be located among the synonyms, 

 and that some other important new or well-known foreign Devonian forms, such as Uncites, 

 Gryphus, Davidsonia Verneuilii, Atrypa lejiida, &c, will require to be added to our British 

 catalogue. I must not, however, attempt to conceal that I have experienced great difficulty 

 and uncertainty relative to the identification of some of these so-termed species, chiefly from 

 the want of sufficiently perfect material, and, at times, insufficiency of description and illus- 

 tration by several original describers. In these cases I have reproduced the original 

 descriptions and figures, and have prefixed a point of interrogation to each description 

 where some doubt may prevail, or where the material has not been quite sufficient to 

 warrant a satisfactory determination. 



I will not at present anticipate what I may have to say with reference to those species 

 which are common to the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian systems, as I 



