F. R. Cowper Reed— The Bohkevekl Beds, S. Africa. 307 



submitted to me for examination, and all are from the same locality. 

 They are in the condition of internal casts, with the exception of one 

 fragment of a pedicle valve (PI. XVIT, Figs. 3, 3a), which has the 

 shell of the beak and of the adjoining portions preserved. It is 

 unfortunate that the available material is not better, but by making 

 casts of the specimens it has been possible to draw up the foregoing 

 description. 



The generic position and relations of this fossil are not at 

 once obvious, although the general appearance suggests the genus 

 Eenssel(Bria, and certain features recall the imperfectly known genus 

 Scnphioccelia from the Devonian of Bolivia. This genus, of which 

 only one species has been described (S. boliviensis, Whitfield^), is 

 defined by its author as follows : — " A terebratuloid, brachiopodous 

 shell, having a strongly convex ventral valve and a longitudinally 

 and angularly sulcated dorsal valve, both of which are strongly 

 plicated. Internally the ventral valve has a strong, deep, triangular, 

 byssal opening and muscular seat, and the dorsal has strong crural 

 processes ; but the loop or calcified appendages are unknown. Shell 

 structure strongly fibrous, without any puncture under a hand- 

 magnifier." Hall & Clarke" quote this description, and remark that 

 the genus may be provisionally regarded as allied to Centronella and 

 Trigeria. The type-species reaches a size of over 3^ inches in 

 length. Our specimens approach this in dimensions, and possess 

 the large incurved beak, foramen, and apparently open delthyrium 

 indicated in Whitfield's figures. The pedicle valve is likewise the 

 more convex of the valves, but the brachial is merely flattened and 

 not "angularly sulcated." The external ornamentation and structure 

 of the shell appear to be similar, though the surface of our specimens 

 is somewhat abraded. 



Internally our shell does not exhibit the perforated hinge-plate of 

 Trigeria and its allies ; and its massive hinge-plate, not divided 

 down the middle and not supported by septa, removes it from 

 Rensselaria and BeacTiia, The muscle-scars are also quite different. 

 The characters and prominence of the muscle-scars in the pedicle 

 valve, and the massive hinge-plate, median septum, and large, 

 well-defined, ilabellate, adductor impressions in the brachial valve of 

 Megalanteris ovalis, Hall,^ are recalled by the characters of our 

 species, but we have no evidence that the latter possessed a cardinal 

 process similar to that found in Megalanteris. The beak of the pedicle 

 valve is less prominent, and the ornamentation of the sui-face of the 

 shell different, but these features are of less importance. The stout 

 approximate crura in our shell are not specially distinctive. 



On the whole, we seem to have a shell externally resembling in 

 many respects ScapMoccelia, and internally showing many features 

 of resemblance to Megalanteris. The ignorance which exists as to 



1 "WTiitfield: Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers, vol. xis (1891), p. 106, 

 figs. 1-4. 



* Hall & Clarke: Palajont. N.Y., vol. viii, Brach. ii (1894), p. 275, figs. 193-196. 



3 HaU: Pal. N.Y., vol. iii (1859), p. 458, pi. 106, figs. 2a-l. Hall & Clarke, 

 op. cit., p. 277, pi. Ixxvii, figs. 12-22. 



