THE LOWER SILURIAN PERIOD. 



109 



has with justice been appHed to the Silurian period as a whole- 

 It would be impossible here to enter into details as to the 



Fig. 48. — Ptilodictya falcifortttis. a. 

 Small specimen of the natural size ; b. 

 Cross-section, showing the shape of the 

 frond ; c, Portion of the surface, enlarged. 

 Trenton Limestone and Cincinnati Group, 

 America. (Original.) 



Fig. 49. — A, Ptilodictya aatta ; B, Ptil- 

 odictya S chaff eri. a, Fragment, of the 

 natural size ; b, Portion, enlarged to show 

 the cells. Cincmnati Group of Ohio and 

 Canada. (Original.) 



many different forms of Brachiopods which present themselves 

 in the Lower Silurian deposits ; but we may select the three 

 genera Orthis, Strophomena^ and Leptcena for illustration, as 

 being specially characteristic of this period, though not exclu- 



Fig. 50. — Lower Silurian Brachiopods. a and a', Orthis biforata, Llandeilo-Caradoc, 

 Britain and America ; b, Orthis ffabelhtlum, Caradoc, Britain ; c, Orthis siibquadrata, 

 Cincinnati Group, America ; c\ Interior of the dorsal valve of the same ; d, Stropho- 

 mena deltoidea, Llandeilo-Caradoc, Britain and America. (After Meek, Hall, and 

 Salter.) 



sively confined to it. The numerous shells which belong to 

 the extensive and cosmopolitan genus Orthis (fig. 50, a, b, c, 

 9 



