290 Transactions. 



plait and sweeps out and forwards. Suture distinct, lightly 

 impressed. Aperture elongate, narrow, subchannelled above, 

 broadly rounded at the base. Outer lip very slightly reflected 

 and thickened, smooth inside, a little retrocurrent at its insertion. 

 Inner lip forming a narrow callus upon the oblique almost 

 straight body ; the columella subvertical with four evenly 

 spaced rather thin plaits, the superior short and almost trans- 

 verse, the next sloping, but less oblique than the succeed- 

 ing two, the lower of which is a little twisted and margins 

 the very short open canal. Altitude, 6 - 87 mm. ; diameter, 

 311 mm. 



Type in the Colonial Museum, Wellington. 



Obs. A few dead and mostly damaged specimens. It is quite 

 different from all the other hitherto known New Zealand species. 

 From the nearly allied M. allporti, T. -Woods, it is distinguished 

 by the larger size and more slender form, as well as by the 

 absence of denticles on the inner margin of the outer lip, but 

 the indication of brown spiral bands connects it with that 

 species. 



26. Marginella hebescens, n. sp. Plate XXIII, figs. 25, 26. 



Shell small, moderately solid, suboval, smooth and polished. 

 The sculpture consists of irregular minute and smooth growth- 

 periods. Colour white or pale-creamy, pellucid when fresh. 

 Spire elevated and with a blunt apex, about one-third of the 

 total length of the shell. Protoconch paucispiral, smooth, 

 broadly rounded, with a flat small nucleus. Whorls 4, lightly 

 rounded, the last narrowed at the base and with a distinct swel- 

 ling curving out and forward from the columella, base convex. 

 Suture rather broadly impressed and submargined below. Aper- 

 ture longitudinal, narrow, margins subparallel, with an indistinct 

 channel above. Outer lip slightly reflected and thickened, inside 

 smooth, a little retrocurrent at its insertion and with a small 

 distinct sinus. Inner lip narrow on the oblique somewhat 

 convex body ; columella slightly oblique, nearly straight, with 

 four equidistant stout plaits, the first transverse, the following 

 two oblique, and the last subvertical and margining the short- 

 broad and anteriorly rounded canal. Altitude, 3 - 8 mm. ; dia- 

 meter, 2 - 07 mm. 



Type in the Colonial Museum, Wellington. 



Obs. A number of dead shells were obtained. This species 

 also is allied to M. allporti, T. -Woods, but is distinguished from 

 it by the shorter spire and longer aperture, the bluntly rounded 

 apex, the stronger columella-plaits, and absence of all colour- 

 markings. 



