10 BRITISH CARBONIFEROUS BRACHIOPODA. 



is much indebted, as lie has enabled its author to illustrate and fully describe many 

 important species hitherto involved in much obscurity. 



To my Scottish friends and countrymen, it is now my pleasing duty to acknowledge 

 the liberal assistance I have received from them, and among whom I must particularly 

 mention Professor Fleming, who lent all the important Scottish Carboniferous Brachiopoda 

 preserved in his collection, and among which are the originals of those referred to in 

 his work on British animals, as well as several of those figured by Sowerby in the 

 ' Mineral Conchology.' This collection contains the most numerous series of Scottish 

 species I have as yet been able to consult. My thanks are likewise due to the late 

 Hugh Miller, to Professor G. Wilson, Mrs. Rogers, Mr. A. Bryson, and Mr. Rose, 

 of Edinburgh, for the loan and gift of many specimens, as well as for much useful 

 information ; to Professor Nicol, of Aberdeen, Mr. Fraser, of Glasgow, Mr. J. Young, and 

 Mr. A. Cowan ; and to another friend, who, although unnamed, I feel it a most pleasing 

 duty to express my warmest thanks, for the liberal assistance he has afforded by the loan 

 and gift of specimens derived from Lanarkshire, one of the most important and interesting 

 of our Scottish Carboniferous districts. 



To my Irish friends, I am likewise indebted for considerable and most liberal 

 assistance. First, to Dr. Griffith, for the kind manner in which he has lent the Carbo- 

 niferous Brachiopoda contained in his valuable collection ; to Mr. Jukes, for the use 

 of many specimens out of the collection of the Geological Survey of Ireland. To 

 Mr. Carte, for the kind communication of those in the Royal Dublin Museum ; to the 

 Rev. Professor Haughton, of Trinity College, Dublin, to Mr. R. Nelson, and to Professor 

 King, of Queen's College, Galway; to Mr. Kelly, of Dublin, I must tender my warmest 

 thanks for his zealous and indefatigable exertions, not only in procuring me a vast number 

 of important specimens, but also for the valuable information he has at all times conveyed 

 on the distribution and localities from which he had himself collected a large number of 

 the types published by Professor M'Coy in the ' Synopsis.' 



Among my foreign friends, I might name many who have expressed the most lively 

 interest in the success of the present undertaking, but I must confine myself to those who 

 have communicated specimens and information in connection with Carboniferous species. 

 And among these, it is a most pleasing duty for me to express my grateful thanks to 

 Professor L. de Koninck, of Liege, whose excellent works and extensive knowledge of 

 Carboniferous fossils have proved of so much value in the present investigation. To 

 Count A. V. Keyserling, M. De Verneuil, M. Bouchard, and to all the kind and 

 disinterested friends above named, I again tender my most grateful acknowledgments and 

 thanks. 



THOMAS DAVIDSON. 



London ; June, 1857. 



