284 Gra/ptolites. 



authorized editions,, until in this, the last edited by Linnaeus 

 himself, it appeared in three octavo volumes, containing 

 altogether 1504 pages. It is curious to look at the classifica- 

 tion of fossils contained in this work, and notice how the 

 science of Palaeontology has grown during the century that 

 has elapsed since the death of the famous Swede. Every 

 known true fossil (in the modern use of the term) was classed 

 under one or other of seven genera, depending upon whether 

 it belonged to a (1) mammal, (2) bird, (3) reptile, (4) fish, (5) 

 insect, (6) worm, or (7) plant. The genus Graptolithus was 

 retained for a number of anomalous and puzzling bodies, 

 which were, " properly speaking, not true fossils, though they 

 were popularly referred to fossils." Of the seven species 

 included in the genus in the first edition, two are here omitted 

 (star-stones and stigmites), and three others are added; but of 

 the eight species only one is a true graptolite. This he 

 named G. scalaris, and the illustration and description on the 

 147th page of his Scanian Travels (1751) are quoted for it. 

 As this is the first figure of a graptolite, we reproduce it here 

 in fac-simile, and translate his short description. He says, 



Fac-simile of the Figure of Graptolithus scalaris, Linn. From SJcanslca Resa, 



p. 147. 



1 ' Petrifaction or graptolitus of a curious kind, found in a slab 

 of slate that had been broken to pieces, the black characters of 

 which, upon the grey stone, resembled a line such as might be 

 printed by a coin on its edge, and often terminate in spiral 

 ends." This drawing and description have been very differ- 

 ently interpreted, and it is an interesting inquiry to ascertain 

 what Linnaeus meant by his original species. The spiral ends 

 have certainly no connection with the linear fossil, but belong 

 to a different species, most probably G. convolutus, His. All 

 are agreed that the figure represents a graptolite preserved so 

 as to show the cell mouths on its upper surface, and from this, 

 specimens thus preserved have been called "scalariform im- 

 pressions." Some hold that it belongs' to a species with a 

 single series of cells, but I believe that Hall more correctly 



