BRITISH FOSSILS. 



5 



enumerates are those which separate the latter from albogalerus. He 

 remarks, that possibly the conica may prove to be the male of vulgaris. 

 For strati graphical reasons, I do not think this can be the case, but were 

 it so, then albogalerus as a whole must be taken as the male of vulgaris. 

 It is more probable that the pyramidal and tumid forms of albogalerus^ 

 considered distinct by Agassiz and Desor, under the names albogalerus 

 and conica, may be respectively male and female ; but even this hypo- 

 thesis I abstain from proposing, when I see the complete and gradual 

 transition which specimens exhibit between the two extremes of form. 



2. G. abbreviatus. — Certain old figures in the works of Klein, Leske, 

 and others gave origin to the establishment of a Galerites under the 

 names of abbreviatus (Lamarck), truncatus (Defrance), and (in part) 

 vulgaris. The synonymy of this type is fully given by M. Desor, with 

 excellent figures of one of its ordinary varieties (Monog. des Galerites, 

 tab. 3, figs. 9-17). It is the Galerites vulgaris of Goldfuss and of 

 Bronn, and another variety is the Galerites . abbreviatus of the former 

 author, which in the " Catalogue Raisonne," M. Desor elevates to dis- 

 tinct rank as G. oblongus. It is the Conulus vulgaris figured by 

 Parkinson, and probably the species enumerated under that term by 

 Mantell. Varieties of it are figured under the names of Galerites 

 vulgaris a and /S, by Woodward, in his " Geology of Norfolk," plate 5, 

 figs. 2 and 3, as has been proved to me from specimens by my friend 

 Mr. S. P. Woodward, of the British Museum, who has further indicated 

 to me its identity with the Galerites angulosa of Desor (Monog. des Gal,, 

 plate 4, figs. 5-7), and Carotomus hemisphcericus of Desor (Monog. 

 p. 37, plate 5, figs. 14, 15), both founded on well-known English 

 specimens in the collection of the Marquis of Northampton, and of 

 which I have examined exact parallels in the museum of Mr. Bower- 

 bank, the former, indeed, being identical with Galerites vulgaris of 

 the " Geology of Norfolk," and the latter with var. /3 of the same work. 

 Moreover, I have scarcely a doubt that the Galerites pyramidalis of 

 the " Monograph des Galerites," plate 1, figs. 1 to 3, founded on a single 

 flint-cast — a most insufficient ground in this genus upon which to con- 

 stitute a distinct species, — is also Galerites abbreviatus. 



The number of spurious species which have thus been constituted out 

 of one, is scarcely to be wondered at, when the extreme variability of its 

 shape is considered. Of the specimens I have seen with the shell pre- 

 served no two are alike, and certainly the extremely depressed Carotomus 

 hemisphoiricus might very fairly be regarded as at least specifically 

 distinct, were it not that characters sounder than mere outline, mark it as 

 the same, and that all intermediate gradations of convexity may easily 

 be shown. From Galerites albogalerus this species is truly distinguished 



