PROSOBRANCHIATA. 155 
the posterior margin, become gradually elevated and sharp, until at length the tubercles 
between the last three or four furrows assume almost the character of the spines which 
crown the whorls. The transverse furrows are numerous, and the last, which separates 
the two rows of spines, is much wider than the others. The aperture is moderately wide ; 
the outer lip thin and crenulated on the margin by the furrows, but smooth within ; 
the inner lip spread widely over the body whorl, extending backwards a little beyond 
the aperture ; the columella presents four not very oblique folds, of which the anterior 
one is the largest and most prominent, and the posterior two are feeble. 
In the French specimens of this beautiful Volute the ribs are more numerous and 
stronger, and the tubercles at the points of decussation are consequently more nodiform, 
and are less elevated than in the English shells. A similar variance characterises the 
French V. digitalina, as I have before observed, and as our specimens of the present 
species agree very well in other respects with the French shells, I can only regard them 
as a local variety. 
It is this species which the recent /. abyssicola most nearly resembles ; but although 
that interesting shell presents a striking analogy with it, the much closer, more sharply 
defined, and more delicate character of the cancellation which ornaments the surface, 
the shorter spire, the more oblique and more slender columellar folds, and the less 
expanded inner lip sufficiently distinguish it. 
Brogniart, in his list of fossil shells from the tertiary formations of the Vicentin, 
mentions the present species, but remarks that it approaches more nearly to the Barton 
form than to that from the Paris Basin; an observation which is repeated by Defrance. 
As V. digitalina is the Barton Volute which presents the nearest affinity to V. 
erenulata, it is to that species I presume that these authors refer; it is doubtful, 
therefore, whether the Vicentin shells ought not to be referred to V. digitalina rather 
than to the present species,.and as I have not had an opportunity of examining any 
specimens, I have cited the Italian Volutes, but with doubt. The shell represented by 
fig. 22 (t. 25) in Mr. Dixon’s work, and referred by Mr. Sowerby to this species, 
appears to me, as I have already observed, to belong to /. digitalina. 
Size.— : 
Localities—Bracklesham Bay. French: Parnes, Grignon, (fide Desh.). Jtalian : 
Ronca, Val Salgonini, (fide Bronn et Brogn.) ? 
No. 93. VoxutTa Sotanpri. Ff. £. Kdwards. Tab. XX, figs. 6. a—d. 
SrromBus Luctator, Soland. 1766. Brand. Foss. Hant., p. 30; t. 5, fig. 65. 
Votura spinosa, Webster. 1814. Geol. Trans., Ist ser., vol. ii, p. 204. 
= = Sow. 1816. Min. Con., vol. ii, p. 30, t. 115, fig. 2—4. 
— — Morris. 1843. Cat. Brit. Foss., p. 168. 
V. testa ovato-oblongd, longitudinaliter costatd, transversim sulcatd ; spird medioeri, 
