INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. II7 



Fulgur echinatum n. s. 

 Plate 9, figure 2. 



Shell dextral, short, with a stout body and seven or eight whorls ; nucleus 

 small, smooth, of one and a half whorls, subsequent whorls with numerous sub- 

 spinose tubercles at the shoulder, whence the shell rises evenly to the suture, 

 where it is closely appressed below the preceding row of spines ; there are a 

 few faint spiral striae on this space in the early whorls, but they soon become 

 - obsolete ; the lines of growth are slightly irregular ; in the half-grown or 

 adult shell the spines become more prominent and slender, even more or less 

 curved as in some murices ; there is a second series of small, sharp, but shorter 

 spines at or slightly in front of the periphery on the last whorl ; these, in 

 aged specimens, are sometimes twinned ; there are seven or eight spines or 

 double spines in each series in the adult on the last whorl ; the body is rotund 

 and somewhat constricted at the base ; the canal moderately long, narrow, 

 twisted and recurved ; aperture pointed behind, ovate ; with a thin callus on 

 the pillar and body, and a simple, sharp outer lip without (as far as yet ob- 

 served) any internal lirse ; there is a slight callous ridge but no groove on the 

 pillar near its anterior edge ; the figured specimen (including the spines) 

 measures 72 x 58 mm.; the spine near the outer lip is 11.5 mm. long. An 

 adult specimen measures 117 x 80 mm.; the longe.st spire on this one is 8.0 

 mm. long. The shell is solid and heavy, though not ponderous. 



Caloosahatchie beds on the Caloosahatchie and Shell Creek, collected by 

 Mr. Willcox. 



It is somewhat singular that, to a study which has resulted in the consoli- 

 dation of so many nominal species, fortune should have added the oppor- 

 tunity of naming two species which must rank as the most distinct of any 

 known. This may fairly be said of F. stellatum, which awaits better material 

 to be adequately figured, but there is certainly no other species which shows 

 so few links of relationship with the rest of the genus as the one now described. 

 It is certainly the most elegant in form of any, and like Tiirbinclla ( Vasuni) 

 horriduni stands alone in the group. 



Among the forms not noticed above I regard as good species Fulgiir 

 fiisiforme and F. carinatum Conrad from the Miocene of Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia. F. coarctatum Sowerby is a rare variety which bears to the recent 

 F. carica such a relation as F. rapuin Heilprin does to F. maximum Conrad. 

 I am not sure as to the nature of the relations between F. carica L. and 

 F. eliceans Montfort. For the present I prefer to regard them as varieties, 

 though they may eventually prove distinct. 



From a cursory examination of the fossil forms of the American Tertiary 

 which appear related to Fulgur, I have conie to the conclusion that Tudicla, 

 like Fulgur, is the terminal development of a process of evolution which 

 started in geologic time from a stock much like Levifusus or Bulbifusus, 

 and which in different faunal regions attained a slightly different result. 



