FALCONER ON THE AMERICAN FOSSIL ELEPHANT. 
49 
species, the British Association has not legislated against Latin 
grammar. 
As regards the force of the claim, put forward in the second 
clause,—every terrestrial mammal must have a regional habitat some¬ 
where ; but I fail to apprehend how the proposed geographical name 
would convey ‘ a more lucid idea of the nature of the species.’ In 
natural history, the distinctive characters of species are commonly 
founded on something more intrinsic and tangible. Further, four 
years before, I indicated that the fossil species had ranged from 
Georgia to Mexico, a stretch of nearly 20° of longitude. To restrict 
it to the intermediate region of Texas would be a step of retrograde 
error. 
In the proposed specific definition, I fail to detect a single term or 
character which is not either expressed, embodied, or implied, in my 
Synoptical table above referred to ; with this difference, however, 
that the author has mal-adroitly handled terms of which he knew the 
meaning but imperfectly. The colliculi , or constituent ridges of the 
unworn teeth, are not undulated; but the enamel plates of these 
ridges are crimped, and their worn edges in the abraded, molar, dis¬ 
play the character by their ‘ machcerides undulates .’ 
On these grounds, I cannot acquiesce in the ingenuously avowed 
aspiration, that the law of priority should in this case give way, in 
order that E. Texianus of Owen and Blake might supplant the 
earlier name of _E7. Columbi. The reasons assigned for the proposed 
change are so light and trivial, that I should not have considered it 
necessary to notice them, but for the fact that the paper is accom¬ 
panied by an illustration of the Bollaert-Molar; for a figure of a 
new or imperfectly known form, will always carry with it a citation 
of the name it bears, and of the paper in which it occurs, however 
slight the latter may be. 
§ 2. Dentition of E. Columbi. 
I shall now examine tbe principal remains of E. Columbi that have 
come under my observation. 
Of the milk-dentition, the only specimen which I have seen is a 
penultimate milk-molar (m. m. 3.) in situ in a finely preserved left 
ramus of the lower jaw of a very young Elephant, contained in the 
Palaeontological Gallery of the Jardin des Plantes, and labelled 
(No. 77), as having been brought by M. LeClerc from Texas. It 
attracted the attention of Blainville (who figured and described it 
in the dental series of JE. primigenius) as presenting unusual cha¬ 
racters :— 
“ Le troisieme echantilion est plus interessant, d’abord a cause de 
“ son origin, puisqu’il vient du Texas d’ou il nous a ete rapporte par 
“ M. LeClerc, et ensuite parce qu’il semble indiquer quelque chose de 
“ particulier.”* In this young molar, the anterior ridge, together 
* Osteographie Elephants, p. 190, pi. x. fig. ii. c. 
N. H. R.— 1863. E 
