197 



Family CASSIDID^. 



Genus CASSIS, Martini. 



[Coach. Cab. vol. ii. 1773, pis. xxxii., xli. p. 15 ; also Lamarck, Mem. See. 

 Hist. Nat. Paris, 1799, p. 72.] 



Cassidea, Bruguiere, Ency. Meth. Vers. t. i. pars 2, 1792, p. 414. 



Shell ovoid, ventricose, having irregular varices ; spire short ; 

 aperture elongate ; outer margin reflected outwardly, denticulate 

 in the interior ; columella callous, plicate, dentate or granulate ; 

 columellar callosity extending over a great portion of the ventral 

 surface ; canal very short, broad, reflected. 



Ti/pe. — Buccinu)n cornutum, Linnaeus. 



Cassis exigua, Tenison-"Woods. 



1S79. Cassis exigua, Tenison-Woods, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. vol. iv. p. 17, 



pi. ii. fig. 7. 

 1889. Cassis exigua, Tate, Trans. Roy. Soc. South Aust. vol. xi. p. 164, 



pi. vii. fig. 13. 



The specimen figured by Mr. Tenison-Woods refers evidently to 

 a very young shell, and the interpretation placed upon it by Pro- 

 fessor Tate (oj». supra cit.) is here adopted, though the specimens in 

 the Museum do not enable the pi'esent writer to control the matter. 



The protoconch consists of one and a half oblique, smooth turns, 

 abruptly joined to the succeeding whorl. The shell is solid, 

 ventricose, with a short conical spire ; suture in the later whorls 

 hidden and surmounted by an undulating, granulose, and tuber- 

 culate ridge ; shoulder of the body-whorl coronate, with large, 

 prominent, compressed, tooth-like tubercles ; smaller tubercles ai'e 

 developed in front of this on the body-whorl. Aperture narrow, 

 outer margin flattened, inflected, and slightly reflected, dentate 

 within ; inner margin much expanded, projecting in front as a thin 

 plate over the umbilical region ; columella twisted, and f urnishetl 

 with a number of irregularly disposed plications. 



C mamiUarig, Gruteloup, of the Upper Tertiary of Europe, is 

 a close ally. 



