8CRUPOCELLABIA ELLIPTICA. 47 



SCEUPOCELLARIA iNERiiis, Norman, Rep. Br. Assoc. 186fi, 203 ; id. Quart. 

 Journ. Micr. So. 1868, (n. s.)viiL215, pi. v.flgs. 1-3. 



Zoarium rather stout, yellowish horn-colour, dichoto- 

 mously branched. Zooecia oblong ; aperture elliptical, 

 with a broad flattened margin, destitute of spines and 

 operculura. Lateral avicularia not prominent ; no 

 avicularia on the front of the cells. Vibracular cell 

 subtriangular, scarcely so broad as high, aperture 

 stretching diagonally downward and inward. Seta 

 short. Oaecia smooth, imperforate, inclining inwards. 



Height about ^ inch. 



HABITAT. Moderately deep water. 



LOCALITIES. 5-8 miles off Balta, in 40-50 fathoms, 

 rare; the Minch, Hebrides (A. M. N.) : Shetland 

 (C. W. P.) *. 



RANGE IN TIME. Austro-Hungarian Miocene (Reuss). 



S. elliptica is not unlike S. scruposa in many respects, 

 but is clearly distinguished from it by the broad and 

 flattened margin of the apertures, the absence of spines, 

 the somewhat less prominent lateral avicularia, and, above 

 all, the broad, triangular vibracular cells, with their 

 slanting apertures. The last is certainly the best distinc- 

 tive character. 



There can, I think, be little doubt that the present 

 species is identical with S. elliptica of Reuss, a fossil 

 form which is abundant in some of the Tertiary deposits 

 of Austria. There is a minute agreement between the two 

 in most of the details of structure. The only points in 

 which there may possibly be a slight difference are of 

 secondary importance. Reuss states that there are occa- 



* Kirchenpauer records this species from Greenland ; but as be identifies 

 it doubtfully with Smitt's Cfllularia scabra, forma tlongafa, from which it 

 i* clearly distinct, I give this locality with reserve. 



