66 0. Meyer — Species in the Southern Old-tertiary. 



against him under these circumstances is that he represented 

 suppositions too much like facts. 



We find more reason to complain of the work which Professor 

 Angelo Heilprin has published on the Old-tertiary. His first 

 essay is: 



1. " On some new Eocene fossils from the Claiborne 

 Marine formation of Alabama."* I leave a determination of 

 most of these " new " species till I have had an opportunity of 

 examining at leisure the type specimens. Some of them, how- 

 ever, can be recognized very easily from the descriptions and 

 figures. Solarium striato-granulalum Heilpr. is a specimen of 

 Solarium ornalum Lea ; Natica bisulcata Heilpr., a specimen of 

 Natica magno-umbilicata Lea ; Tornatella bicincta Heilpr. is 

 Aclaeon lineatus Lea ; Odostomia laevigata Heilpr. is a fragment 

 of Aciceon melanellus Lea ; Delphinula solaroides Heilpr. is either 

 a } 7 oung specimen of Solarium elegans Lea, or an old one in 

 which the larger whorls are broken off. 



2. "A comparison of the Eocene Mollusca of the United 

 States and Western Europe, etc."f I have already in a former 

 paper;}: excluded all identifications of Professor Heilprin which 

 were made from figures. A collection of several hundred 

 species of the French Old-tertiary, which I received from Mr. 

 Cossmann in Paris, convinced me that the rest of his compari- 

 sons have also little value. In the French Old-tertiary as well 

 as in the American there are quite a number of similar forms 

 (connected by descent?), and only a large amount of material 

 compared by an experienced observer can furnish reliable 

 identifications or other results of comparison. 



3. " On some new Lower Eocene Mollusca from Clarke 

 County, Ala., etc."§ Specimens from Wood's Bluff, which I 

 received from Professor E. A. Smith and Mr. Aldrich in Tus- 

 caloosa, convinced me that no reliance can be placed upon 

 these determinations and descriptions. I mentioned in part I 

 of this essay that Dentalium micro-slriatum Heilpr. has most 

 probably a fissure, although Professor Heilprin says " there 

 being no fissure." Where I have received the corresponding 

 material I have found none of the Claibornian determinations 

 correct. A striking example is the determination u Corbula 

 rugosa Lam. (C. oniscus Conr. var. C. gibbosa Lea)." 



The two species in Claiborne, C. gibbosa Lea and C. Murchi- 

 soni Lea (C. oniscus Conr.), are two entirely different species ; 

 neither of them is identical with the French C. rugosa Lam., 

 and neither of the three is identical with the species in Wood's 

 Bluff, which I have had in my collection for some time under 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1879, pp. 211-216. 

 f Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1879, pp. 217-225. 

 % Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1884, p. 104. 

 § Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1880, pp. 364-375. 



