IV.—Notes on the Genus Rostellaria (or Aporrhais?) of the Gault

Extract

Having read Mr. Price's note and description of Rostellaria maxima in last month's Number (p. 97, Pl. VI.), I venture to express my regret that so doubtful a species should be published with the apparent authority of the GeologicalMagazine to confirm it; especially as Mr. Wiltshire (than whom there is no one better acquainted with English Cretaceous Mollusca) is of opinion that it is only a giant form of Rostellaria carinata. The description given by Mr. Price would equally apply to the ordinary form of R. carinata which occurs in the same bed, and, save in size, exactly resembles it. The most distinctive portion of the shell, the wing, is unfortunately not preserved. The examples of Rostellaria carinata found in this bed, I may remark, always differ slightly in form, being broader and more obtuse (they are also usually more crushed and imperfect) than those from the lower beds. I am fully; convinced that, if size alone is sufficient ground to justify the formation of new species, we shall speedily find the present confusion of names in the Gault fauna more hopelessly involved and more impossible to unravel than ever. What, for instance, would be the result of the adoption of such a basis of nomenclature for the Cephalopoda from the same formation ?