194 PERMIAN FOSSILS. 
Family ASTARTID, King. 
Crassinip@,! J. HL. Gray. 
I quite agree with Mr. Gray in making the genus Astarie typical of a distinct family 
group. The dental and muscular systems, thick epidermis, and some other characters, 
widely remove it from all those families in which Lamarck, Blainville, and other 
conchologists have placed it. Astartide agrees with Zrigonude only in being without a 
siphonal inflexion. 
Genus Astarte, J. Sowerby. 
Crassina, Lamarck. 
Diagnosis.—“ Suborbicular or transverse: subinequilateral: hinge with two di- 
verging teeth : a depression before the beaks : impression of the cloak entire, exhibiting 
no siphon-cicatrix.” (J. Sowerby.” 
As this genus, which contains several recent forms, was originally founded on a 
fossil species, and consequently not so fully described as could be wished, it has been 
considered necessary to add the description of it by Forbes and Hanley, the latest 
writers on the subject. 
“Shell oblong, suborbicular or triangular, solid, equivalve, more or less mequi- 
lateral, sometimes nearly equilateral, closed ; surface smooth, or transversely furrowed, 
and covered by a conspicuous epidermis. Muscular impressions ovate, strongly 
marked ; pallial impression simple, rather distant from the margin. Hinge composed 
of two strong diverging primary teeth in one valve, and a primary tooth with a less 
supplementary one, which is sometimes obsolete, in the other. Ligament external, 
elongated, usually lodged in a lozenge. Lunule almost always distinct.” 
It is suspected that the following species are the earliest created forms known. 
ASTARTE VALLISNERIANA, Azng. Plate XVI, fig. 1. 
Astarte (?), J.de C. Sowerby. Sedgwick, Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond., 2d series, 
vol. iii, p. 119, 1829. 
— (2) on De la Beche, Geol. Man., p. 385, 1831; Germ. 
Transl., p. 459, 1832; 3d Eng. ed., p. 573, 
1833. 
— VALLISNERIANA, King. Catalogue, p. 11, 1848. 
1 The epithet Crassinide having no generic typical name, in consequence of the general abandonment 
of Lamarck’s Crassina, I have made free to substitute for it that of Astartide. 
2 Mineral Conchology, vol. ii, p. 85. 
3 A History of British Mollusca, vol. i, pp. 450-1. 
