SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES. 
91 
Alcide d’Orbigny, having recognized recent specimens of the subgenus Assilma, 
changed the name “ Nummulites ” to u Nummulina ” (Ann. Sci. Nat. vol. vii. 
p. 295). True Nummuline specimens also have been met with in recent state, 
still further fortifying his position, were it necessary to adhere to the nomen- 
clatorial plan above mentioned. It could not, however, be carried out by its 
originators ; and the two forms of the one name in some instances, as in the case 
of the Orbitolites and Orbitolina, soon meant and now mean two different genera 
— not merely the recent and the fossil forms respectively of one genus. In some 
cases one of the two words has become obsolete, as in the case of Lituola and 
Lituolites, Spirolina and Spirolinites, Miliola and Miliolites , to which last pair 
MUiolina has been added of late years. 
The appellation Nummulites , which has given the word 11 Nummulite ” for 
common use among geologists and others, has certainly the priority over Num- 
mulina , whatever intention the older naturalists may have had of modifying the 
generic name had they had the opportunity of recognizing a recent specimen, 
as happened to d’Orbigny as above mentioned. 
In 1801 Lamarck had only seen Nummulites in & fossil state (the generic name 
u Camerina” had already been given to them by Bruguiere in 1792). When 
he wrote again, in 1804, he might have used Nummulina (in the sense indicated 
above) had he been so inclined ; for Fichtel and Moll’s recent N. radiata and 
venosa* had been published; but he did not recognize these living represen- 
tatives of the genus. 
In the papers on the Nomenclature of the Foraminifera in the Ann. & Mag. 
Nat. Hist. 1859 &c., W. K. Parker and T. R. Jones retained d’Orbigny’s name 
“ Nummulina” in deference to his lead, and to the apparent intention of the 
earlier naturalists. It does not, however, now seem called for ; or, at the most, 
it is only a conveniently synonymous term for the genus Nummulites on some 
occasions. 
2. Note on the English and Belgian Nummulites. 
By the late Philippe de la Harpe, M.D. &c. 
[With painful regret we have received the sad intelligence of the decease of this 
amiable and talented palaeontologist whilst this Catalogue is being printed. He died 
suddenly on February 25th in his fifty-second year.] 
(Copy.) 
“ Sir, — I received four days ago the English N ummulites you kindly sent me 
by Prof. Renevier. They are most welcome, as you will see ; and I return you 
my warmest thanks for them. 
11 1 have examined the specimens ; and I think you will be pleased in learning 
the results of my observations. 
u (I.) Bracklesham. — There are seven of Nummulites Icevigata and twenty-four 
of N. Lamarcki , which proportion is the reverse of that obtaining in France and 
Belgium. The N. Icevigata differs from the type of Paris and Brussels, and 
shows some relation with N. planulata (the large specimens without central 
chamber), by the great height of the chambers. The N. Lamarcki shows some 
affinity to the N. elegans of Sowerby (the small specimens with central chamber). 
“ Is this to be explained by the geological level or stage in which the speci- 
mens are found at Bracklesham P From the zoological characters one should 
think that the English N. Icevigata and Lamarcki lie in the upper third of the 
interval between the Belgian N Icevigata and N. planulata — for instance, at the 
top of the ‘ Paniselian,’ or at the bottom of the ‘ Bruxellian Stage.’ 
* See Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. v. pp. 105 & 106. 
