32 BRITISH DEVONIAN BRACHIOPODA. 



speciosus of Bronn, * Leth. Geog.,' pi. ii, fig. 1 5 (which is not quite like Tereb. speciosus, 

 Schloth., pi. xvi, fig. 1 ) ; but that its lateral ribs are much more decided even in a cast 

 — it appears distinct. It seems also nearly allied to Sp. undulata, Sow., from the 

 magnesian limestone of East Trichley." But I would here again observe that all 

 Phillips's and Sowerby's figures of Sp. costata, which represent very badly preserved and 

 distorted casts, have not angular, but rounded ribs, just as in Sp. undulata and Sp. 

 speciosa proper. We would not, therefore, venture to admit Sp. costata as a distinct 

 species upon such unsatisfactory material. 



We now come to the ' Tables of the Distribution of the Eossils in the Older Deposits 

 of the Rhenish Provinces,' by Viscount D'Archiac and M. De Verneuil, p. 395, 1840, 

 where we find Hysterolites paradoxus, and H. vulvarius, Schlotheim, given as synonyms 

 of Sp. speciosus ; and this leads me to fear that our distinguished friends may have intended 

 to allude only to the Terebratulites paradoxus of Schloth., Hysterolithes vulvarius of that 

 author belonging to the genus Orthis. 



Further on, at p. 408 of the same memoir, in an appendix by J. De Carle Sowerby, 

 we find — "PI. xxxviii, fig. 5, Sp. speciosus, Schloth. . . . Sp. macropterus, var., 

 Goldfuss, MS. ? : there is no character that I am aware of to distinguish this form 

 from Sp. speciosus of Schlotheim ; but, as the internal structure exhibited by the cast is 

 totally different from that of Sp. micropterus (?), I quote Goldfuss with doubt." 



Sowerby further on considers the last-named shell, as a synonym of Hysterolites 

 hystericus, Schloth., to be specifically distinct ; a view also advocated by De Verneuil, 

 at p. 394 of his ' Tables :' and here commences another phasis in the confusion involving 

 these several Devonian so-termed species. 



In 1851 Professor Schnur considered Sp. micropterus, Goldf., to be a variety of Sp. 

 ostiolatus ; and later, in his work on the Eifel Brachiopoda, ' Palseontographica,' vol. hi, p. 

 197, places Sp. intermedins, Schloth., among the varieties of Sp. speciosus ; considers Sp. 

 paradoxus, Schlotheim, to be a distinct species ; Delthyris macropterus, Goldf, being men- 

 tioned as a synonym ; and proposes a third species by the name of Sp. subcuspidatus, 

 with which he locates Delthyris micropterus, Goldf., and Hysterolites hystericus, Schloth., 

 as synonyms. 



And lastly, in his ' Die Brachiopoden des Rheinischen Schichtensystems in Nassau,' p. 

 21 (1855), Dr. Sandberger admits as a species Sp. macropterus, Goldfuss, and considers 

 Sp. mucronatus and Sp. micropterus, Goldfuss, as varieties of the same. 



From all this diversity of views it is difficult to arrive at any positive opinion with 

 reference to the synonyms of Sp. speciosa; but I am inclined to believe that Sp. intermedia, 

 Sp. paradoxa, Schloth , Sp. costata, Sow., Sp. macroptera, and Sp. microptera, Goldfuss, 

 may all be varieties or modifications in shape of a single very variable species. My 

 material in German specimens of the shells here named is not, however, as extensive 

 as I could have desired, and therefore trust that the subject will be reconsidered by some 

 of the German palaeontologists. 



