38 Mr. Toulmin Smith on the Classification 
British Museum^ again, is a large and valuable series of fossils, 
which I have carefully examined, and which I can therefore state 
with assured confidence to belong to this family*, and which are 
stated to be from Mount Bhanden in Switzerland ; a locality the 
strata of which are declared to be equivalent to ttie lower beds of 
the Middle Oolite of England. The matrix appears much the 
same as that of our English chalk marl ; but that test is, of course, 
very incomplete. The point requires careful investigation ; and, 
as the true character and importance of these fossils will have 
now become known, it may be hoped that the attention of some 
of the many competent foreign observers may be directed to it. 
As I shall show the changes which these forms have undergone 
in passing from one division of our English strata to another to 
have been great, it will be peculiarly interesting to ascertain 
exactly to what strata these foreign forms do actually belong ; for 
many of them differ much from our English forms. It is inter- 
esting at present to remark that the form which is of the great- 
est vertical range in the English beds {Brachiolites digitatus) is 
unequivocally found in these Rhanden beds. 
In p. 510 of the first volume of the Journal of the Geological 
Society there is described by Mr. Lonsdale, under the name of 
Ocellaria ramosafi a fossil found by Mr. Lyell in the Eocene 
deposits at Jacksonborough in Georgia, United States. Did this 
fossil exhibit any true affinities wfith the group which has been 
called Ocellaria it would necessarily belong to the Ventriculidse, 
and I was anxious to ascertain the facts. Mr. Lyell has obli- 
gingly enabled me to do this by placing in my hands all the 
specimens found by him, and which are, it is believed, all that 
have ever been found. The result is, that the fossil is found to 
present none whatever of the characters of Ocellaria ; and I 
cannot understand upon what grounds it has had this name affixed 
to it by Mr. Lonsdale, except that he appears, from his observa- 
tions, never to have had an opportunity of examining any actual 
specimens of the so-called Ocellaria, and to have been misled by 
some of the figures f. These fossils however answer -to no part 
of the generic description given by Ramond, or any subsequent 
writer, of the Ocellaria. The tubules in the Eocene fossils are 
tubules ramifying through a massive substance, and there is not 
any polyparium which is explanato-memhranaceum” and ‘‘ utro- 
* These treasures are at present unarranged. I should be happy to 
assist in that task, and to complete it by adding, as far as possible from 
my private collection, all the British forms, should the present Commis- 
sion result in any prospect of improvement in that respect. 
f The figure specially referred to, and which is copied by Lamouroux, 
pi. 72, fig. 5 , has certainly a considerable resemblance to a special fractured 
surface of the Eocene fossil. 
