Victorian Fossils, Port XV.' 189 



its typical aspect, as described hy Dr. Pritchard, fiom Torquay, 



Victoria. That locality, althoujzli in tlie same 2:eolo<^ieal sta<>:e as 

 the Tal)le raj)e beds, is a new one for the above form, since it has 

 hitherto been restricted to the hitter plate. 



Ocrurrence. — Tertiary ; janjukian. 13ird Rock Cliffs, Torcpiay. 

 Coll. bv tlie kite Mr. J. F. IJailev. 



Fam. SOLARIIDAE. 



Genus Homalaxis, Deshaycs. 



Hoinahicis jyraemeridioimlis, sp. nov. (Plate XTI., Figs. 4-6.) 

 Description. — Shell small, compressed, subcircnlar ; flat above, 

 rather deeply concave below, side hollow. Protoconch smooth, in- 

 flated, consisting: of about one turn ; remainder of shell consisting; of 

 three whorls. She'll, as seen from above, nearly flat, only very slightly 

 concave in the last Avhorl ; bordered externally with a beaded or 

 nodulose nmrgin, whilst from each nodule there proceeds a thin raised 

 thread normal to the margin. Median surface of whorl relieved by a 

 strong but narrow, nodulose raised band, which appears submarginal 

 by the involution of the earlier whorls ; general surface finely spirally 

 striate and crossed at right angles by the excessively fine growth- 

 lines, producing a micro-cancellate ornament. Peripheral area 

 stepped below the inner half of the whorl. As seen from below, 

 whorls angulately convex, with a median, raised nodulose band, and 

 several fine, spiral striae parallel to the margin ; these are crossed 

 by fine lines of growth ; the median band on the inner whorls sub- 

 marginal in relation to the successive turns of the shell. Mouth 

 subcircular. slightly elongated in the direction of the long axis of 

 shell ; the jieripheral border and the outer median liand standing' 

 out in the oral aspect as two strong, salient l)eaded carinae. 



Diiiunxioiis. — Major axis, 0.2,5 mm. : minor axis. 5.5 mm. ; height, 

 1.75 mm. 



Observations. — This handsome species represents the first recorded 

 occurrence of the genus as an Australian tertiarj^ fossil. Mr. Chas. 

 Hedley has described and figured a recent species under the name of 

 Omalaxis 7neridion</Iis,^ from Port Stephens and off Cape Three 

 Points, New South "Wales, -19-50 fathoms (" Thetis "). Several species 

 of this genus were described and figured by Deshayes (under the 

 generic name of Bifronfia) from the middle eocene of the Paris 

 Basin,- but none has the same type of ornament as the Australian 

 shells, either recent or fossil. 



1 Mem. Austr. Miis., vol. iv., pt. 6, 1903, p. 350, fi>;. 74. 



2 Deshayes, Desor. Coo. Foss. Eiiv. Paris, vol. ii., 1824, pp. 222-7, pi. xxvi., fii,'s. 1.1-2i>. 



