PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 3 



zealous friends, to whom it is a most pleasing duty to tender my grateful thanks. To 

 Professor King, of Queen's College, Galway ; to Mr. R. Howse, of South Shields ; and to 

 Mr. Kirkby, of Bishopwearwouth, I am equally and especially indebted for much valuable 

 information, the liberal loan of the beautiful specimens of their collections, as well as for 

 the indefatigable exertions they made in procuring the material required for the complete 

 illustration of several of the species figured in the accompanying plates. 



To Mr. G. Tate, of Alnwick ; Mr. Hancock, of Newcastle ; Mr. Binney, of Manchester ; 

 and Dr. Carpenter, of London, I am greatly obliged for much useful information. To 

 Sir Roderick Murchison and Professor Huxley, for the use of Mr. Howse's original speci- 

 mens, preserved in the Museum of the Geological Survey ; and to Mr. S. P. Woodward, 

 for some in the British Museum. 



To Baron Schauroth, of Coburg, M. Eisel, jun., and to Professor Geinitz, I am in- 

 debted for valuable information, as well as the kind gift of a numerous series of German 

 specimens, which have enabled me to compare our English forms with the equivalents 

 found on the Continent, the shells from the Zechstein Dolomit of Possnech, &c, being 

 identical with those so abundantly distributed in the magnesian shell limestone of 

 Humbleton and other of our British localities. 



I must also express my warmest acknowledgments to Count Keyserling, of Raikull, 

 near Reval, for the valuable information and most zealous endeavours he has made to 

 procure for me several important Russian specimens, required for the perfect elucidation 

 and identification of some of our English types; as well as to Dr. A. G. Schrenk and 



Prod, korridus, P. Cancrini, P. Leplayi, P. Robertianus, Spirif. alatus, and Sp. cristatus from that distant 

 region. Professor King had already noticed his first paper on the subject published in 1846. 



In 1853, ' Em Beitrag zur Fauna deutschen Zechsteingebirges,' by Dr. Baron Karl v. Schauroth, was 



published. 

 In 1854, ' Ein Beitrag zur Palaeontologie des deutschen Zechsteingebirges,' by the same author, whose 

 excellent publications on German Permian fossils has added very considerably to our 

 knowledge on the subject. 

 In 1855, 'On the Permian Beds of the North-west of England,' by E. W. Binney ; but no Brachiopoda 

 have been discovered in the Permians of this part of England nor in any of the Irish 

 similar beds. 

 In i856, 'On the Occurrence of Permian Magnesian Limestone at Tullyconnel, near Artrea, in the 



County of Tyrone,' by Professor W. King. 

 In 1856, 'Ein neuer Beitrag zur Palaeontologie des Zechsteingebirges,' by Baron v. Schauroth. 



' Notes on Permian Fossil Palliobranchiata,' by Professor King. 

 In 1857, 'Notes on the Permian System of the Counties of Durham and Northumberland,' by R. 

 Howse, Esq. 

 'Notes sur les genres Athyris (= Spirigera), Camarophoria, Orthesina,et Strophalosia, , par 

 Mr. Thomas Davidson. ('Bulletin de la Societe Linneenne de Normandie,' vol. ii, 

 pi. i and ii). 

 Besides these, several other memoirs on Permian rocks and fossils have been published by Dr. Geinitz, 

 Mr. Coquand, and by the Geological Survey of Missouri ; but which, not containing any matter in direct 

 reference to the Brachiopoda, need not be at present more fully reverted to. 



