This notice is the fifth in a series recording the transfer of fossils described by Rousseau H. Flower (1913-1988) to the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. National Museum. During a long, productive, and colorful career, Rousseau described more than 400 new fossil taxa (Wolberg, 1988). Most of Rousseau's fossils have been maintained in the collections of the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources. The fossils in this transfer were sent to Rousseau in 1952 by William J. Sando, then a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, who collected them during his research on the Beekmantown Group of Maryland (Sando, 1957). In 1955, Rousseau submitted a manuscript to the Journal of Paleontology and this was published in 1956. Some controversy seems to have surrounded the publication of the paper; we have found a file of correspondence related to that publication and it is very “Roweresque” in content. In addition, Rousseau cataloged the Sando fossils into the NMBM&MR's collection, but from the associated correspondence there seems to be little doubt but that the collection was intended to be reposited in the Smithsonian.

Rousseau h. flower (1913-1988) collected and published widely in paleontology during a career that spanned more than 50 years. Although Rousseau did significant paleontological work while employed elsewhere, the major part of his career was spent at the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources (NMBM&MR), a career that included a decade of work after his formal retirement (Wolberg, 1988). During his life, Rousseau built a very large fossil collection based upon his own field work., materials other scientists referred to him for study, material sent to him by serious amateurs, and collections Rousseau borrowed from other institutions and was unable to return before his death. The NMBM&MR is attempting to find and return all borrowed material. Similarly, we intend to transfer much described fossil material to major repositories with appropriate facilities for their maintenance in order to make the fossils available to as many interested students as possible. The guidelines for the transfer of this material were set by Rousseau before his death.

Girty (1910) described Patellostium laevigatum from the Fayetteville Shale (Mississippian, Chesterian) of Arkansas but did not provide illustrations. Yochelson (1969) redescribed and illustrated the type material, placing the species in the genus Patellilabia Knight, 1945.

In 1824 the British naturalist John Finch described (p. 40) a large fossil oyster from Shell Bluff, Burke County, Georgia, as Ostrea Gigantissima. Ten years later, T. A. Conrad (1834, p. 156-157) described this same taxon as Ostrea georgiana. For many years the oyster was most commonly identified using Conrad's name, but Howe (1937) clearly pointed out the priority and synonymy involved. More recently, the species has been assigned to the genus Crassostrea Sacco, 1897, and recognized (e.g., Sohl and Kauffman, 1964) as Crassostrea gigantissima (Finch). This Cenozoic taxon has special significance (Sohl and Kauffman, 1964) because it is most certainly the direct ancestor of C. virginica (Gmelin, 1791), the type species for Crassostrea.