﻿B R 1 T I S II 



BELEMNITES 



HISTORICAL NOTICE S. 



Belemnites were first so named in Germany, in the celebrated work of Georgius 

 Agricola, of date 154G, and described by him among the 'Figured Stones' which then 

 began to attract attention in Europe. In 1077 they were noticed in England by Dr. Plot 

 ('Natural History of Oxfordshire'), and in 1G78, by an equally famous pioneer of natural 

 history, Dr. Lister. 1 From this time the well-known controversy regarding their nature — 

 whether they were mere stones, crystals, horns, or shells — was stoutly maintained by 

 Grew, 2 1681, Woodward, 3 1C95, Lhwyd,* 1G99, and others in England, and by many 

 foreign naturalists, until the general progress of zoology and geology left no room for 

 doubt as to their affinity with the shelly supports of other better-known Cephalopoda. 



The description of species of British Belemnites begins with Dr. Plot, 1G77, the first 

 Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to whom I am therefore especially bound to 

 render due justice. It is easy to recognise in his writings and figures the large species of 

 Belemnite, called Belemnites abbrevlatus by a later writer, which occurs in the Coralline 

 Oolite of Hcadington, near Oxford ; 5 B. elongatus, Miller, is probably one of the two 

 species from the Upper Lias of Great Rolwright, Oxon. ; and the deeply grooved species 

 {B. sulcafus, Mill.), is common near Oxford. ('Natural History of Oxfordshire,' pi. iii, — 

 3, 4, 5, G.) 



1 ' Historise Aninialium Anglirc, tres tractatus,' 16/8, 4to. 



2 'Catalogue of Rarities,' &c, 1681, fol. 



;! 'Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth,' 16*93, Svo. 

 4 ' Lithophylacii Brittannici, Ichnographia,' 1699, Svo. 



6 " If vehemently rubbed, the only one amongst all that I have that, like amber, takes up straws 

 and some other light bodies." ('History of Oxfordshire,' p. 94.) 



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