132 



PEOF. T. E. JONES ON NUMMULITES ELEGANS 



9. Note on Nummulites elegans, Sowerby, and other English 

 Nummulites. By Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S. 

 (Read December 15, 1886.) 



[Plate XI.] 



There being much confusion in the supposed relationship and 

 published synonymy of Nummulites elegans (Nurnmularia*, Sowerby), 

 I propose to offer some remarks on the history of this species, more 

 especially as less trouble would have been caused if I had taken 

 more care years ago, and examined all, instead of only some, of 

 Mr. Sowerby's specimens which have been associated with that 

 name. 



Having just now seen (October 1886), for the first time, the 

 " Sowerby Collection " at the British Museum (Natural History, 

 Cromwell Road), I find that Sowerby's labelled specimens of 

 " Nummularis elegans " are really the same as my variety Prest- 

 ivicliianaf of Nummulites planulatus, which the late Dr. Philippe De 

 la Harpe regarded as a variety of N. wemmelensis %. Other 

 specimens, however, which belong to true N. planulatus, were 

 confused by Sowerby with his N. elegans. 



Specimens labelled " Nurnmularia elegans " on the original card, 

 No. 44007 (1) in the " Sowerby Collection," are exactly such as come 

 from the well-known bed " no. 29 " (at the base of the Barton Clay) 

 of Prof. Prestwich's section of the strata at Alum Bay, Isle of 

 Wight, in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ii. (1846), p. 257, pi. 9. 

 fig. 1. One horizontal section among them matches one of Sowerby's 

 drawings in the ' Mineral Conchology,' pi. 538, namely the 10th 

 figure on the plate (counted in the order of the figs. 1, 2, 3), 

 included in " fig. 2," and probably magnified two diameters. The 

 other drawings in " fig. 2 " do not match the specimens from the 

 bed " no. 29," but those referred to in the text (p. 76, vol. vi.) as 

 having come from " Emsworth," and which are still in the Collection, 

 and are so marked. These so-called " Emsworth " specimens 

 evidently belong to N. planulatus, such as is found on the Continent, 

 as indicated by me in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. (1852) 

 p. 350, note. 



In 1852, Mr. James De Carle Sowerby, at my request, showed me 

 the " Emsworth " (N. planulatus) specimens at his own house ; but, 

 not comparing the figures and text of the ' Min. Conch.' at the same 

 time, and not seeing the others (that is, the real " N. elegans" of the 

 Collection), we did not discriminate the two sets of specimens ; and 

 my note (Q. J. G. S. 1862, p. 92), written on the occasion, refers only 



* The generic term Nurnmularia used by Sowerby is an unnecessary synonym 

 of Nummidites, Lamarck ; and the reasons for preferring Nummulites to 

 Nummulina are given in full in my ' Catalogue of the Fossil Foraminifera in the 

 British Museum,' 1882, pp. 90, 91. 



t Quart. Journ. Geol, Soc. vol. xviii. (1862), p. 93. 



X Catal. Foss. Foram. Brit. Mus. 1882, pp. 22 & 92. 



