A'N~D OTHER ENGLISH NUMMULITES. 



133 



to the A r . planulatus (allocated to Emswortli) alluded to in the text of 

 the ' Mineral Conchology ' at page 76, vol. vi. 



No locality is given for Sowerby's real N. elegans (pi. 538, part of 

 fig. 2), though its identity with specimens from Bed " no. 29 " 

 cannot be doubted ; and the mention of " Ems worth " is made 

 incidentally for the other Nummulite, about the relationship of which 

 Sowerby may well have been uncertain. 



In the British Museum (" Sowerby Collection ") we find No. 44007 

 (1) labelled " Nummular ia elegans, W. D. S." There are several 

 specimens mounted on a card. One is illustrated by the 10th figure 

 (part of " fig. 2 ") on pi. 538, Min. Conch, vol. vi. (September, 1826*), 

 and described at p. 76, under Summularia elegans. 



No. 44007 (2) is the same, together with fragmentary shells, in 

 a clay with glauconite and coarse quartz grains, much rounded. 

 This is evidently the glauconitic clay-bed of the Barton series, part of 

 " no. 29 " of Prestwich's Section at Alum Bay, Isle of Wight, 

 Q. J. G. S. vol. ii. (1846) p. 257, pi. 9. fig. 1. 



As Sowerby's "elegans" is definitely the same as Nummulites 

 Prestwichianus (var. of jpXanulatuts), Jones, of the bed "no. 29," and 

 as Dr. Ph. de la Harpe determined some of these Barton (" no. 29 ") 

 Nummulites sent to him to be a variety of N. wemmelensis, we have 

 three names for this little fossil. If it be a species of itself, the name 

 elegans would have priority of any other, unless the commingling of 

 the two forms in the ' Mineral Conchology ' loc. cit. interferes with 

 the value of the evidence of the original card with mounted speci- 

 mens, labelled " N. elegans " by Sowerby. It is unfortunate that 

 Mr. Sowerby at the same time referred some specimens of another 

 species (previously described by Lamarck as "Lenticulites planulata ") 

 to his N. elegans, figuring them with it, and alluding to some of 

 their features in his account of N. elegans. Nevertheless it is easily 

 distinguished both among his figures and among his specimens pre- 

 served in the British Museum. Accepting " elegans " as subordinate 

 to Yanden Broeck and De la Harpe's JS T . wemmelensis, we must 

 replace the varietal name of Prestwicliiana by that of elegans. 

 Doubtless, in a zoological point of view, wemmelensis is itself a variety 

 of planulatus : and this latter, as De la Harpe puts it, is a subor- 

 dinate member of the N. Murchisoni group, or, as Prof. W. K. Parker 

 and myself have regarded it, a variety of A", perforatus lower than 

 complanatus and its allies f . Therefore elegans (Prestwichianus) is 

 a variety of planulatus in our sense ; but it is not advisable to ignore 

 the specific value of wemmelensis, on which Dr. De la Harpe has 

 bestowed much careful research ; and N. wemmelensis, De la Harpe, 

 var. elegans, Sow., is a correct denomination for the Nummulite 

 under notice. 



To proceed : — 



In the " Sowerby Collection " :— No. 44007 (3) contains the 

 individuals shown by the 9th and 11th figures (part of " fig. 2 ") on 

 pi. 538. No. 44007 (4) has the 6th figure (part of "fig. 2") on 



* For the exact dates of the parts and volumes of this work, see Professor E. 

 Eenevier's note in the ' Bullet. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat.' 2 Mai, 1855. 

 t See Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. viii. pp. 233, 234. 



