256 
PALAEONTOLOGY OF NEW YORK. 
allies, Orthis umbraculum* * * § Schlotheim, and in the Carboniferous by Streptorhynchus 
lens, White, Spirifer crenistria* Phillips, and others. A noticeable variation from 
the type of structure described, occurs in the Niagara species, Orthothetes subplanus, 
where the deltidium of the brachial valve constantly increases in size, from youth 
onward, while the deltidium of the opposite valve is very slightly developed. 
The term Orthothetes has not come into general use, on account of the want 
of clearness in its original definition. The species which are now included 
under it have been generally left with the designation Streptorhynchus, but 
accepting the views maintained by Dr. Waagen, the latter genus must be re¬ 
garded as limited to the Carboniferous and Permian species. Waagen, in 1884, 
was the first to place Fischer de Waldheim’s name, Orthothetes, upon a sub¬ 
stantial basis He says: 
“ Though this name has been quoted as applied by Evans to certain forms 
already in the year 1829, yet the genus can not be considered as fairly estab¬ 
lished before the year 1830, when in the first edition of the ‘ Oryctographie,’ 
the interior of a dorsal valve, was distinctly figured and the genus definitely 
transferred to the Brachiopoda by Fischer de Waldheim. In the edition of 
1830, only the interior of a dorsal valve was figured, whilst in the edition of 
1837 an external view of a ventral valve is added. 
“ In both cases there can not remain the slightest doubt that the name was 
applied to a shell very nearly related to Streptorhynchus crenistria, Phill., and 
which, chiefly in the internal characters of the dorsal valve, is generically 
identical with Phillips’ species.”f 
De Waldheim did not apply a specific name to his figured species, and subse¬ 
quently, in 1850,| he described two species, Orthothetes radiata and 0. socialis, 
the former of which has a strong median septum in the pedicle-valve, and 
both are probably referable to the genus Derbya. De Verneuil identified 
the figure given by de Waldheim in 1837 § as the Orthis arachnoidea,\\ of 
* These species have been recognized by most American authors as occurring in the Carboniferous rocks 
of America. It is doubtful whether a careful comparison of European specimens with the American 
forms will prove them identical. 
f Salt-Range Fossils, I, vol. iv (fas. 3), p. 607. 
X Orthothetes ; genre de la Famille des Brachiopodes; Bull. Societe Imp. Naturalistes de Moscou, 
p. 491, pi. x, figs. 1-4. 1850. 
§ Oryctographie du Gouvernement de Moscou, p. 183, pi. xx, figs. 4, a, b, c. 
1 Geologie de la Russie d’Europe et des Montagnes de l’Oural, p. 196, pi. x, fig. 18; pi. xi, fig. 1. 
