Marshall. — Some New Zealand Fossil Cepkalopods. 143 



and by Urban in his elaborate " Symbolse Antillanse." Part 2 of the 

 " Nachtrag " to Engler and Prantl's " NaturUcheu Pflanzenfamilien," page 72, 

 contains a brief sketch of a new chHssification of the family, from which 

 it appears that sixteen genera, with about seventy-five species, are now 

 known. Nothwithstanding the small size of the family, it has a wide dis- 

 tributioii in the tropics, its chief development being in Brazil and Malaya. 

 Northwards, it stretches as far as China and Japan in Asia, and Virginia in 

 America. In the Southern Hemisphere the New Zealand species appears 

 to be the only one yet detected outside the tropics. 



The subfamily Thismiece, into which Bagnisia falls, now contains four 

 genera and about fifteen species. Seven of these are from Brazil; the 

 remainder come from Ceylon, Borneo, and New Guinea. The discovery 

 of an additional species in New Zealand, so far removed from the two 

 centres of distribution of the subfamily, is a decidedly unexpected and 

 somewhat puzzling fact in geographical distribution. 



Art. XXVI. — Some New Zealand Fossil Cepkalopods. 



By Professor P. Marshall, M.A., D.Sc, F.G.S., University of Otago. 



[Read before the Otago Institute. H)th November. 1908.] 



Hochstetter first discovered the remains of cephalopods in the Jurassic 

 rocks of Kawhia. He described the species of Ammonite as A. novo-zelandicus. 

 Two species of belemnites were also described. 



In later years Hector has added several species of belemnites to those 

 named by Hochstetter. The occurrence has been frequently recorded by 

 Cox, McKay, and others in the rocks of the Hokonui Hills and of Kawhia. 

 No descriptions of these have yet been written. The species here described 

 were collected by Mr. R. Browne and the writer in the Hokonui Hills, behind 

 Mandeville, and by Mr. Browne near Te Puti Point, in the Kawhia Harbour. 

 The strata in the former locality have been classed as Permian or Triassic 

 by Hector, and in the latter they have been regarded as Jurassic by all 

 authorities. 



Broncoceras mandevillei. 



Diameter, 9J in. ; breadth, 3i in. 



Surface ornamented with longitudinal and transverse striae, giving a 

 knotted appearance to its surface. Deeply involute. Some specimens 

 slightly constricted towards the ventral surface ; others flattened. Siphuncle 

 not discernible even in the best-preserved specimens. Siphonal lobe some- 

 what acute, but less so than the interior lateral lobe. 



