248 
PALEONTOLOGY OF NEW YORK. 
mon fossil in the upper horizon of the Hudson River group in the Ohio valley. 
Rafinesque himself, did not define his genus Strophomenes in any American 
work until the publication of his tract of October, 1831,* where it appears in 
the following terms: 
“ Strophomenes, Raf. Equilateral, hinge broad, great valve notched by a 
lunulate sinus receiving a lunulate projection from the smaller valve.” 
In a tract published in Philadelphia in November, 1831, entitled, “ Enumera¬ 
tion and Account of some remarkable Natural Objects in the Cabinet of Prof. 
Rafinesque in Philadelphia,” p. 4,f the descriptions of the following species 
under Strophomenes are given : 
“ Strophomenes, Raf., 1820. See tract of October [1831]. 1. Str. levigata. Very 
smooth, longer valve convex, lower valve concave, corners acute, not auricu- 
lated; contour arched and even. Length, 4-5 of the breadth. Kentucky 
limestone. 2. Str. flexilis. Very thin, lower valve hardly concave, with minute 
curved strias; upper valve convex, with minute flexuose strias, corners acute 
subauriculate. Length and breadth equal. Limestone of Ohio, 1 or 2 inches.” 
In the absence of illustrations the descriptions of these species are too mea¬ 
ger to allow of their identification. So far as known the name Strophomenes 
does not again occur in the writings of M. Rafinesque, and since these species 
have not subsequently been recognized or farther defined, the term Strophom¬ 
enes, Rafinesque, in this connection can not be retained. 
In 1846, King]: considered S. rugosa as congeneric with Leptcena alternata, 
Conrad. Sharpe, § in 1848, takes Orthis umbraculum, Schlotheim, as the typical 
species of Strophomena, including the 0. crenistria, of Phillips, thus making 
* The title of this tract is as follows : “ Continuation of a Monograph of the Bivalve Shells of the River 
Ohio, and other Rivers of the Western States. By Prof. C. S. Rafinesque. ( Published at Brussels, Sep¬ 
tember, 1820.) Containing 46 species, from No. 76 to No. 121. Including an Appendix on some Bivalve Shells 
of the Rivers of Hindostan, with a Supplement! on the Fossil Shells of the Western States, and the Tulosites, 
a new genus of fossils. Philadelphia, October, 1881.” 
f Binney and Tryon’s Reprint, p. 69. 
I Annals of Natural History, vol. xviii, p. 36. 
§ Quarterly Journal Geological Society, vol. iv, p. 78. 
I! In this tract he refers to the Monograph which he had sent to Brussels for publication in the “ Journal de Physique ," and 
writes : “ I propose to give an epitome of this Monograph which I have not seen in print. I possess nearly all the shells.” 
Then follows a list of the genera which he had there proposed under the order Brachiopia ; numbering altogether 
twenty-three generic terms. 
