CIIONETES. 187 



attention to the species of the genus, maintains a different opinion to that here recorded, 

 while not absolutely denying the possibility of mine being correct. 



Geologists and palaeontologists have for many years been in the habit of distinguishing 

 the Chonetcs we arc at present describing by the name Hardrensis, and although 

 Prof, dc Koninck, in page 20G of his ' Monographic du genre Chonetcs,' has referred this 

 shell and the one figured by Ure in 1793 to C. variolata, he subsequently determined 

 that our form could not be assimilated to D'Orbigny's species, and proposed that the 

 Scottish shell, which occurs also at Vise, in Belgium, should be made a new species of 

 under the designation of C. alternata} Having received from Prof. Phillips the loan 

 of his four best and figured examples of C. Hardrensis, and having compared these with 

 our Scottish and other examples, the result was that I could perceive no difference in the 

 shape, areas, and striation, so that I deemed it preferable to allow the Chonetcs we arc 

 describing to retain the name Hardrensis. C. Hardrensis is certainly a very variable 

 species, and this has, no doubt, induced palaeontologists to consider some of its variations 

 in shape to be distinct species. The striae vary much in number and strength. In 

 some specimens they are exceedingly numerous and fine, while in other examples they arc 

 less numerous and coarser, the shell differing also much according to age and locality. 

 C. Hardrensis (as I understand it) occurs in the limestone and shales of many English, 

 Scottish, and Irish localities. In England it is found at Settle, in Yorkshire; Sturaway, in 

 Shropshire, Newton-on-the-More, Northumberland, &c. In Scotland it is met with at 

 Gare, in Lanarkshire, at 239 fathoms below "Ell Coal," 343 at Raes Gill, 35G at Hill- 

 head. It occurs also at Capelrig, East Kilbride, Auchentibber and Caldcrside, High 

 Blantyre ; Brockley, near Middleholm, Lesmahago ; Robroyston, north of Glasgow. In 

 Renfrewshire at Arden Quarry and Orchard Quarries, Thornliebank. In Stirlingshire 

 in various stages, such as Craigenglen, Mill Burn, the Campsie main limestone, Corrie- 

 burn, &c. In Ayrshire at West Broadstone, Beith ; Auchenskeigh, Dairy ; Goldcraig, 

 Kilwinning, &c. In Ireland it occurs in many localities in the counties of Dublin and 

 Kildare, &c. 



In the shale above the " Hosie limestone" at South Hill, Campsie, in Stirlingshire, we 

 find millions of specimens of a small variety (?) of the shell under description (fig. 22), but 

 it does not appear to have exceeded some two and a half lines in length by three in width, 

 the generality of specimens being even smaller. Mr. Young, to whom we are indebted for 



1 Having been enabled to compare a great many specimens of C. variolata, D'Orb., = C. granuliferu, 

 Owen, with our Carboniferous C. Hardrensis, I could perceive little or no difference between many of the 

 specimens, although the ribs are at times, perhaps, finer and more numerous in certain examples of the 

 American C. variolata than in some specimens of Phillips's species, so that I do not consider Prof, de Koninck 

 to have been much mistaken when he referred Ure's figures to D'Orbigny's species. I may likewise observe 

 that the interior details are in both exactly similar. Chonetes striatella, Dalman, sp., from the Silurian 

 limestone of Gotland, closely resembles some examples of C. Hardrensis ; it is, however, a little more 

 concavo-convex, and I could not trace the existence of spines on its surface. 



