260 



NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



FAMILY CYPREIDAE. 



The shells in this family are remarkable for their forms, 

 polish and beauty. They are rolled as a scroll, and are cov- 

 ered with a porcellanous enamel. The spire is concealed, the 

 aperture is long and narrow, and the outer lip is inflexed and 

 thickened. It comprehends the beautiful, spotted and banded 

 shells known as the cowry. 



CYPRAEA CAROLINENSIS. (Fig. 131.) 



FIG. 131. Shell ovate, flattened on the 



side of the aperture ; outer lip 

 prominent at the apex; margins 

 of the lips ornamented with num. 

 erous plaits, and receding from 

 each other, beginning at the 

 most prominent part of the whirl. 

 In some of the miocene beds it 

 is quite common. 



CYPEEA PEDICTJLUS. 



It is a small ovate shell, and 

 transversely ribbed, and with a 

 narrow groove along the back. 

 I have not yet met with it in the 

 marl beds of this State, though 

 it appears to be common in South 

 Carolina. 



FIG. 132. 



MITKA CAROLINENSIS. (Fig. 132.) 



Shell fusiform, thick, or elongate, and tapering 

 towards each extremity ; whirls slightly convex, 

 channeled above, and traversed by numerous 

 spiral raised lines ; columella lip, furnished with 

 numerous oblique plaits, of which the upper 

 one 'is the strongest; canal wide and straight. 

 Miocence marl of North-Carolina. The shell 

 is often found much larger than the figure. 



