796 DE. G. J. HINDE ON RECEPTACULITIDZ. 
nifera’ by Prof. Rupert Jones. It includes several species of 
Receptaculites from the Silurian strata of the Baltic, Canada, the 
United States, and the Arctic regions, also from the Devonian of 
Belgium; Ischadites Kenigit, from the West of England and Got- 
land; Spherospongia tessellata, from Devonshire; and specimens of 
a new genus, Acanthochonia, from the Silurian of Bohemia. For 
the opportunity afforded me of studying this collection, I beg to 
express my thanks to the Keeper of the Geological Department, Dr. 
Henry Woodward, F.R.S. Next, a splendid collection of nearly 
150 specimens of Jschadiies, from the Silurian strata of Gotland, 
which have been freely placed at my disposal for examination by 
Prof. G. Lindstrom of Stockholm, to whom I feel under great obli- 
gations for thus enabling me to study specimens in excellent preser- 
vation. Further, Prof. F. Romer generously sent me from Breslau 
a small collection, including figured types of Receptaculites from 
Devonian strata at Ober-Kunzendorf in Silesia. My thanks are also 
due to Prof. M*Kenny Hughes for the opportunity of studying the 
collection in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge; to Mr. J. F. 
Whiteaves, F.G.8., for specimens of eceptaculites from Canada ; 
and to Mr. A. Champernowne, F.G.8., for an example of the same 
genus from Devonshire. In the Museum of the Society I have 
studied the type specimen of [schadites Keenigii, Murch.; and in the 
Museum at Jermyn Street, I have, through the kind permission of 
the Director-General of the Geological Survey, examined numerous 
examples of Ischadites and the type specimen of Spherospongia tes- 
sellata, Phill. Lastly, 1 have made use of specimens collected by 
myself from Silurian and Devonian strata of Canada. . 
A short historical sketch of the principal notices which have 
appeared respecting this group of fossils will be of interest, as showing 
the various opinions brought forward about their nature and affini- 
ties. 
The first account of a member of this group is by Defrance, in the 
‘Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,’ 1827, tom. 45, p. 5, Atlas, 
pl. 68, who describes and figures two specimens from Devonian strata 
in the neighbourhood of Chimay, Belgium, to which he gave the 
name of Receptaculites Neptuni. These specimens, the types of the 
genus, show very imperfectly the real characters of the organism. 
The original structures have either been replaced by iron-peroxide, 
or the spaces which they occupied are now vacant. Defrance gives 
a very clear account of the characters exhibited, and compares the 
regular arrangement of the rhomboidal plates of the outer surface 
to the disposition of the scales on the cone of a pine-tree. The 
connecting pillars are, in these specimens, merely hollow cells. The 
author expresses doubts whether the fossils are marine organisms, 
but finally concludes that they may belong to the order of Polyps. 
Goldfuss, in the ‘ Petrefacta Germanizx’ (1826-33) p. 31, t. 9, f. 18, 
19, describes and figures under the names of Coscinopora placenta 
and C. suleata two fragments of the same species already made 
known by Defrance. The first-named species is stated to be irom 
the Uebergangs-Kalk (Devonian) of the Hifel, and the latter, evi- 
