SCRUPOCELLAEIA ELLIPTICA. 47 



ScRUPOCELLARiA iNERMis, Norman, Rep. Br. Assoc. 1866, 203 ; id. Quart. 

 Joum. Micr. Sc. 1868, (n. s.)viii.215, pi. t. figs. 1-3. 



Zoarium rather stout, yellowish horn-colour, dichoto- 

 mously branched. Zooecia oblong ; aperture elliptical, 

 with a broad flattened margin, destitute of spines and 

 operculum. Lateral avicularia not prominent ; no 

 avicularia on the front of the cells, Vibracular cell 

 subtriangular, scarcely so broad as high, aperture 

 stretching diagonally downward and inward. SetcE 

 short. Ooecia smooth, imperforate, inclining inwards. 



Height about i inch. 



Habitat. Moderately deep water. 



Localities. 5-8 miles off" Balta, in 40-50 fathoms, 

 rare; the Minch, Hebrides (A. M. N.) : Shetland 

 (C. W. P.) ^. 



Range in Time. Austro- Hungarian Miocene (Reuss). 



S. elUptica is not unlike S. scruposa in many respects, 

 but is clearly distinguished from it by the broad and 

 flattened margin of the apertures, the absence of spines, 

 the somewhat less prominent lateral avicularia, and, above 

 all, the broad, triangular vibracular cells, wath their 

 slanting apertures. The last is certainly the best distinc- 

 tive character. 



There can, I think, be little doubt that the present 

 species is identical with S. elliptica of Reuss, a fossil 

 form which is abundant in some of the Tertiary deposits 

 of Austria. There is a minute agreement between the two 

 in most of the details of structure. The only points in 

 which there may possibly be a slight difference are of 

 secondary importance. Reuss states that there are occa- 



* Kirchenpauer records this species from Greenland ; but as he identifies 

 it doubtfully with Smitt's Cellularia scahra, forma ehngafa, from which it 

 is clearly distinct, I give this locality with reserve. 



