86 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAGNER FREE 



Scaphella (Oaricella) Leana Dall. 

 Plate 6, figure 9. 



Shell small, elongate-fusiform, of five or six whorls ; nucleus small, with a 

 distinct spur or elevated point (which formation may conveniently be termed 

 the calcai'elld) and composed of one whorl ; suture closely appressed, the 

 whorl somewhat constricted in front of it ; the whole shell sculptured with 

 small, subequal, close-set, flattish spiral threads, across which the incremental 

 lines are hardly perceptible ; aperture longer than the spire, narrow, with a 

 faint recession at the suture (not well shown in the figure, which is too straight 

 at this point) and a long, narrow, straight canal ; pillar with no siphonal fasci- 

 cle, a thin glaze anteriorly, and four thin, sharp, well-elevated plaits, of which 

 the anterior is the least pronounced ; canal not constricted off; outer lip sim- 

 ple. Lon. of shell 26.0; of aperture 18.0; max. lat. of shell 8.0 mm. 



Lower Lignitic series, Prairie Creek, Wilcox Co., Alabama, in the clays 

 (No. 5) just above the Nautilus rock or Enclimatoceras limestone. 



This is the earliest and smallest and one of the neatest species of the 

 Caricella group so far known. It resembles in miniature the Miocene Sca- 

 pliella Trenholuiii and has entirely shaken off any characteristics of Vohttihtlies, 

 if it ever had ancestors of that type. The contrast between such a species as 

 this and the capacious, heavy forms like Caricella siibajigidata, which appeared 

 later on, is very marked ; but in the decline of the group the last (Oligocene) 

 species of Caricella, C demissa Conrad, returns to very much such a form as 

 this first species exhibits. 



The Nautilus rock is the first fossiliferous Eocene bed, and lies immedi- 

 ately over the Cretaceous Ripley beds. It contains, beside the Nautilus Ulricld 

 White, a number of gigantic Cerithia like those of the Paris basin, which have 

 not hitherto been recognized, but have been referred to Cheuinitzia (Conrad) 

 and Turritella, partly, no doubt, on account of their inferior state of 

 preservation. 



Caricella podagrina Dall. 



Before examining the type of C subangulata as figured by Wailes and 

 named by Conrad, I had supposed the present shell to be subangtdata, and 

 the true subangidata to be undescribed, and in this way it comes that the lat- 

 ter is figured, and the present species not so. The differences, however, are 

 few and easily pointed out. C podagrina differs from C. pyndoides, and 

 especially from C. subangidata (under which name I have received it from Mr. 

 Aldrich), by its much more sunken spire, the tops of the whorls being flat or 

 excavated ; by the last whorl with a marked but not sharp angulation at the 

 shoulder, and wider anteriorly ; and by the sutural edge of the last whorl, 

 which is elevated and rounded, dropping suddenly to the suture instead of 

 being smoothly appressed against it. Wailes' figure does not show the suture 

 of subangulata accurately. C. podagrina is also larger, much more solid and 



