30 BRITISH DEVONIAN BRACHIOPODA. 



? Spirifer costatus, Sow. Trans. Geol. Soc, 2nd series, vol. v, pi. lv, figs. 5, 6. 



— speciosus, D' 'Archiac et De Verneuil. Descriptions of the Fossils in the Older 



Deposits of the Rhenish Provinces, Trans. Geol. Soc, 2nd series, 

 vol. vi, pp. 395 and 408, pi. xxxviii, fig. 5. 



— speciosus = intermedius und paradoxus, Bronn. Index Palseontologicus, 



p. 1181, 1848. 



— — M'Coy. British Pal. Foss., p. 3/6, 1852. 



— — Schnur, in Dunker u. Von Meyer's Palaeontographica, vol. iii, pi. xxxii, 



fig. 2, 1853. 



Spec. Char. Shell transversely fusiform ; hinge-line straight and long ; cardinal angles 

 and lateral margins gradually attenuated ; valves moderately convex ; beak small, incurved ; 

 ventral area of moderate breadth ; sinus wide, regularly concave, extending from the ex- 

 tremity of the beak to the front, and to which corresponds a mesial fold in the opposite 

 valve. Each valve is ornamented by from twelve to eighteen, or more, simple rounded 

 ribs, the surface of the shell being regularly and closely crossed by sharp, concentric lines 

 or laminae of growth. 



Length 9, width 18 lines ; but the shell has attained larger proportions. 



Obs. Characteristic specimens of this species occur in the Middle Devonian shales of 

 Hope's Nose and Meadfoot, near Torquay. Professor M'Coy mentions its occurrence at 

 Fowey, East Looe, St. Veep, Polruan, &c, in Cornwall ; but from these localities no 

 specimens have come under my notice. On the Continent it is common in the Eifel, at 

 Convin in Belgium, and Luga ; also in the States of Ohio and New York in America. 



This appears to be a very variable shell, and has been somewhat differently interpreted 

 by palaeontologists. It may therefore be desirable to enter upon some details in connection 

 with its history. 



The first notice we can find of Spirifer a speciosa is contained in p. 52 of Leonhard's 

 ' Taschenbuch,' for 1813. The shell is not described, but mentioned by Schlotheim in the fol- 

 lowing words: — " Terebratulites speciosus ,aus der Gegend von Belinzona: meine Sammlung;" 

 and in the accompanying pi. ii, fig. 9, he gives a representation of his species. The shell is 

 fusiform, with a simple fold and sinus, each valve being ornamented by some ten or twelve ribs, 

 the whole closely traversed by concentric lines or slightly projecting laminae. Subsequently, 

 in 1822, and at p. 252 of his 'Die Petrefactenkunde,' Schlotheim again mentions his species, 

 and gives a good illustration of it in pi. xvi, fig. 1, of his work. This specimen shows 

 about twenty-eight rounded ribs in each valve. Here, also, for the first time, he intro- 

 duces his so-termed Terebratulites intermedius (pi. xvi, fig. 3), which the generality of 

 palaeontologists consider to be a simple variety or variation in shape of Sp. speciosa, with 

 about twelve ribs upon each of its valves. Both are stated to have been derived from the 

 Eifel. 



In 1833 Goldfuss appended a list of fossils to Von Dechen's translation of Sir H. 

 De La Beche's ' Manual of Geology,' and introduced a number of new names without 

 description or illustration, and has thus furnished us with another instance of the confusion 



