V.—Notes on the British Graptolites and their Allies

Abstract

In the following communication I intend to give a very brief outline of some of the chief results of my investigations among British Graptolites in those departments of inquiry which are more especially connected with consideratious of classification. I shall content myself with offering a concise statement of the main conclusions at which I have arrived, reserving all detail to the future, when I hope to adduce decisive evidence in support of the views here advanced. The special subjects to be noticed in this place are—the development, structure, classification, and geological distribution of that section of the Rhabdo-phora in which the complete polypary can be proved to be composed of one or more polyparies essentially similar to that in the unilateral and uniserial forms to which the name Graptolites (Graptolithus) is commonly applied. Those Rhabdophora supposed to be similar in structure to the genus Retiolites will be considered in conjunction, but no pretension is made to anything like the same certainty in this section.