Geology and Mineralogy. 315 



The report is signed by the general secretaries, MM. Th. 

 Tschernyschew and C. de Vogdt. h. s. w. 



4. The Development of Glyphioceras and the Phylogeny of the 

 Glyphioceratidce ; by James Perrin Smith. (Proc. Cal. Acad. 

 Sci., Series III, vol. i, No. 3, pp. 105-129. With three plates. 

 1897.) — The author has traced out and illustrated the stages of 

 growth of this early goniatite from actual specimens of Glyphio- 

 ceras incisum Hyatt from the Lower Carboniferous formation in 

 northern Arkansas. The following summary is given of the 

 ontogeny of the genus Glyphioceras. 



" Glyphioceras in its ontogeny goes through the following 

 stages: phylembryonic, protoconch, representing the primitive 

 cephalopod ; ananepionic, Silurian nautiloid ; metanepionic, Anar- 

 cestes of Lower Devonian; paranepionic, Tornoceras of Middle 

 Devonian ; neanic, Prionoceras of Upper Devonian and Carbon- 

 iferous, showing gradual transition through ana-, meta-, and para- 

 neanic, and a gradual change from Prionoceras to Glyphioceras 

 in the late adolescent and early adult stages. Prionoceras is 

 undoubtedly the family radicle, and Brancoceras is a side-branch, 

 since Glyphioceras does not go through any stage corresponding 

 to the latter genus. Gastrioceras comes from Prionoceras 

 through Mtinsteroceras) by somewhat narrowing the whorl and 

 division of the ventral lobe. Glyphioceras comes directly from 

 Prionoceras by narrowing the umbilicus so as to conceal most of 

 the inner whorls and by division of the ventral lobe. 



The division of the subfamily Glyphioceratidse into Brancoceras, 

 Prionoceras, Pericyclus, Glyphioceras (subgenus Mtinsteroceras), 

 Gastrioceras, Paralegoceras, is quite proper for phylogenetic 

 reasons. 



According to Steinmann the CeratitidaB of the Trias are 

 descended from Gastrioceras, and the Tropitidse from Pericyclus, 

 but neither of these groups goes through stages of growth corre- 

 sponding to these genera. Tropites does, however, go through a 

 Prionoceras stage, and later it resembles closely Gastrioceras, but 

 it already has the Tropites keel before the ventral lobe is divided. 

 It then descends from the Glyphioceratidre, but directly from the 

 radicle and not through any modified form. But it is quite likely 

 that some of the genera assigned to the Tropitidse do descend 

 directly from other members of the Glyphioceratidae. h. s. w. 



5. Brief notices of some recently described minerals. — Raspite. 

 A new tungstate of lead, Pb\V0 4 , from the Broken Hill mines in 

 New South Wales, described by C. Hlawatsch. It occurs in small 

 brownish yellow transparent crystals of tabular habit ; these 

 belong to the monoclinic system. The hardness is 2*5 and the 

 luster adamantine ; an approximate determination of the refrac- 

 tive index gave the unusual value 26. An analysis by F. P. 

 Treadwell yielded : 



W0 3 PbO Fe 2 3 , MqO 



49-06 48-32 1*43 =98-81 



Raspite, associated with stolzite, occurs with decomposed galena 



