PHILLIPSIA. 25 



not here given so definitely as altogether to preclude us from tte idea tliat a spine 

 might have been there, and had been broken off. What we read is, however, 

 definite enough, ' La queue est subconique arrondie.'' 



" Can this, then, be the same species as that in which Eichwald, in 1840, says 

 the tail is prolonged into a long spine ? Is Asaphus Eichwaldii of Fischer really 

 the Otarion Eichivaldii of Eichwald? De Koninck did not think so in 1842, for 

 he gives Fischer's Asaphus Eichwaldii as the probable synonym of Phillipsia 

 {Griffithides) globiceps (Phillips sp.), a well-known species with rounded tail.^ 

 However, before saying anything more in answer to this question, it is necessary 

 to investigate still further the literature of the pointed-tailed species. 



*' In 1860, Eichwald^ gave an entire figure of Griffiihides Eichwaldii, accompanied 

 by a description more in detail than that which he published in 1840. The figure 

 given in the * Lethgea Rossica ' will be seen, however, to present some marked 

 discrepancies with those by which the present paper is illustrated.^ The cephalic 

 spines are shown of enormous length, the eyes occupy a most remarkable anterior 

 position close to the margin of the cephalic shield, and more than one line or 

 furrow crosses the central part of the head. The number of thoracic rings is 

 nine, of axial segments in the pygidium, eighteen. No reference is made in the 

 description to any ornamentation of the surface. 



" In 1867, Valerian von MoUer* in describing a pygidium of this species, from 

 the neighbourhood of Tschernischkinaja, in the Government of Kaluja in Russia, 

 pointed out the delicate ornamentation of the surface, not before noticed as 

 characteristic of the so-called Griffiihides Eichivaldii. He criticised Eichwald's 

 figure in the ' Lethsea Rossica ' with great severity, going even so far as to doubt 

 its genuineness, and to suspect its being ' a not quite successful restoration in 

 which the characters of two quite different forms occur, that of Phillipsia mucro- 

 nata, and of another hitherto little known species.' To this Trilobite Moller 

 restored M'Coy's name of ' Phillipsia mucronata,' accepting Fischer's description 

 of * Asaphus Eichwaldi * as applying to a round-tailed species. Von Eichwald, in 

 his reply ^ to von Moller's criticism, maintained the identity of Fischer's Asaphus 

 Eichivaldii with the mucronate-tailed species, and asserted the presence of a small 

 depression or opening at the end of the pygidium which indicated a broken-off 

 process." 



' ' Description des Animaux fossiles qui se trouvent dans le terrain carbonif ere de Belgique,' p. 600. 



2 ' Letbaea Eossica, Formations anciennes,' p. 1435, Atlas, pi. liv, fig. 10. 



^ Reproduced in our Plate IV, figs. 1 and 3. 



* " Ueber die Trilobiten der Steinkohlenformation des Ural, nebst einer ubersicht und einigen 

 Erganzungen der bislierigen Beobachtungen iiber die Kohlentrilobiten im Algemeinen." Von Valerian 

 von Moller. ' Bull, de la Societe Imperiale des Katuralistes de Moscou,' 1867, pt. 1, p. 121. 



5 "Die Letbsea Eossica und ihre Gegner., erster Nachtrag." Von E. von Eichwald. 'Bull, de 

 la Soc. Imp. Nat. de Moscou,' 1867, iii, p. 202. 



