92 



BRITISH SILURIAN BRACHIOPODA. 



they should be described under separate heads. Such also is the opinion of my dis- 

 tinguished friend Herr Lindstrom, who has devoted very great care and attention to the 

 study of these species. Nevertheless, the question still demands further consideration. 



Much difficulty has also been experienced by palaeontologists, with reference to the 

 correct determination of these shells ; and great confusion has arisen from the uncertainty 

 they have felt as to which form was intended by Linne as the type of his Anomia crispa. 

 It must, however, be remembered, that at p. 1152 of the 12th edition of the ' Systema 

 Naturae' (1767), Linne has referred to the description and figure published in p. 90, 

 tab. V, fig. 7, of the ' Musseum Tessinianum' (1753),^ for the source whence his Anomia 

 crispa was derived, and a reference to that figure, which we have reproduced in our 



' 8. Anomia angulis lateralibus dilatatis dentibus aiternis, tab. v, fig. 7. 

 Testa angulis utrinque dilatatis et dentibus aiternis. 



Valvula superior in medio longitudinaliter sulcis quatuor elevatis : ad latera vera sulco 

 uno alterove. 



Valvula inferior medio elongata et adscendens apice, qui etiam, uti latera, sulcis duobus 

 elevatis notatur. 



The original specimens described in the ' Musseum Tessinianum ' are, I am told, preserved in the 

 Museum of the University of Copenhagen. 



In vol. i, part 2, of the ' Systema Naturae,' edit. 12, is written : 



" Anomia crispa, 232. A. testa dilatato-triangulari plicata sulcis rugosis : media latiore. 

 " Mus. Tessin., tab. v, fig. 7. 

 " List. Angl., t. 9, fig. 56. 

 " Habitat . . . fossilis. 



"Testa fere lunata, sed natum superior prominens sulci 5 — 6, rugis arcaatis transversis. Latera testa; 

 Bubmucronata." 



It would not be fair to expect that at a period when the science of palseontology was just about to 

 spring into existence, the early observers, such as Linne, Lister, Plott, Fabius Columna, Bourguet, 

 Bruguiere, Davila, Ilupsch, Walch, Klein, Knorr, Rumphius, Volkmann, Ritter, Bauraer, Andrese, Morton, 

 and many others whose names we might mention, and who wrote previous io the present century, should 

 have been very accurate in their investigations, comparisons, indentifications, or illustrations ; for experi- 

 ence and exactness, the fruit of immense labour acquired step by step, must necessarily have been 

 exceedingly limited at those early periods ; still it is sometimes necessary, when doubt is felt as to the type 

 intended by any of these authors, to look carefully at their descriptions, however quaint they may be, 

 and to the references to figures they may append. Now, in the case of Anomia crispa, Linne refers us 

 also to Lister for a figure of his shell (t. ix, fig. 56), but a glance at Lister's description (which we here 

 append for the sake of illustration) will at once convince the merest tyro in our science that the shell 

 represented in the ' Musaeum Tessinianum,' and that in the ' Historia Animalium Anglise,' cannot belong 

 to the same species. In fact, the first represents a small Silurian Spirifer ; while the second illustrates a 

 much larger and differently shaped Carboniferous species which Lister informs us he found in Lime- 

 rocks, at Stock, in Craven, as his Latin description explains : 



"Lister. ' Ilistoriae Animalium Angliic,' &c., 1678. 



" Fectunculites anomius, cui insignis qucedam lacuna per medium dorsum recta procedif, p. 247, 

 t. 9. f. 56. 



[13. Tab. iii, 6. Tab. iv, d, Plott.] 



