2 



BRITISH FOSSILS. 



which represents a fossil from Newton Grange, distinctly a Nucleolite, 

 and in all probability var. /3 of the species we are describing. To 

 this figure the name Clypeus lohatus is applied by Dr. Fleming, in 

 his " History of British Animals" (1828), p. 479, while the name 

 Clypeus clunicularis is given to the nucleolite figured by William Smith, 

 in his plate of the Coral Rag fossils (Strata Identified, 1817), and cha- 

 racterized in his " Stratigraphical Table of Echini," where it is marked 

 as ranging through upper oolite, " the clay over it," cornbrash, and 

 coral rag. Smith gives no name further than noting it as species No. 2 

 of Clypeus, and, judging from his description, probably meant to include 

 both the clunicularis and dimidiatus of Phillips, whilst his figure seems 

 to represent the latter.* Fleming, in making two species {^Clypeus lohatus 

 and Clypeus clunicularis), overlooks the fact that the figure of Lister, 

 on which he founds the former, is the very representation quoted by 

 Llhwyd as representing Echinites clunicularis. We next come to John 

 Phillips, who, in his " Geology of Yorkshire," part 1 (1835), figures in 

 his plate of fossils of the Cornbrash, under the name of " Clypeus clu- 

 nicularis, Llhwyd," the nucleolite to which he would preserve the name. 

 Although the figure is far too slight, and no profile is given, there can be 

 no question as to what it is meant for, since, in the first place, the pecu- 

 liar form of the anal furrow is correctly indicated ; and, in the second, a 

 new species of " Clypeus,^^ from the coralline oolite, is figured under the 

 name C. dimidiatus, representing the only other British form to which 

 the figures of Plot and Lister might be applied. In the text of his 

 " Lethaea Geognostica" (1835-37), p. 282, Bronn distinguishes between 

 the Nucleolites cluniculains and the N. scutatus of Goldfuss (t. 43, p. 6), 

 holding the latter, in which opinion I agree, identical with the dimidiatus 

 of Phillips. At the same time he makes the Spatangus depressus of 

 Leske's edition of Klein {Nucleolites scutata of Lamarck) a variety of 

 clunicularis. In the " Catalogue Raisonne des Echinides " of Agassiz 

 and Desor (1847) the second fossil species of Nucleolites enumerated is 

 clunicularis, Phillips being the authority taken. For the reason, there- 

 fore, that the original name, clunicularis, as applied by Llhwyd, in all 

 probability included the form before us, whilst the stricter application of 

 it by Phillips is followed by Bronn and Agassiz, the reference of it by 



* Since the above passage was written T have been enabled to examine Smith's original 

 specimens, now lying among undisplayed treasures in the British Museum. They are ten 

 in number ; eight preserve the original lettering. " B. 1. a. Bruham," is a sub-depressed 

 specimen of var. of clunicularis ; " B. 1. a. Mayhill," is dimidiatus; "B. 1. locality 

 washed off, is clunicularis, var. a ; " B. I.e. Wraxhall," is clunicularis, var. jS ; B. 1 . ?" 

 label washed off, but probably the Seaford specimen mentioned in the Stratigraphical 

 System, p. 69, is a dimidiatus; " B. 1. e.," no label, probably the Trowie specimen, is 

 clunicularis, var. y; " B. I- f.," no label, probably the specimen from "South-west of 

 Tellisford," is an intermediate form between a and j8 of clunicularis ; " B. 2." is the same 

 form, and a second specimen marked "B. 2." is a small clunicularis, a. 



