260 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAGNER FREE 



with one especially marked, wider groove a little behind the middle of the 

 whorl. In other cases there will be from two to six grooves regularly or 

 irregularly spaced, beside some on the base. When these grooves are wide, 

 even and regularly spaced, they give to the shell a reticulated aspect which 

 is quite different from that of the forms in which the spacing of the 

 grooves is irregular or there are but one or two of them. The different 

 species of Holmes which the writer has placed in synonymy as above, are 

 characterized by differences in strength and spacing of the spiral sculpture, 

 which is, as a little reflection will convince any one who has worked over large 

 collections, of but the slightest systematic importance in such a case as this. 

 This species goes through a similar series of variations on the European coasts, 

 and they have been named and renamed almost indefinitely. 



The pillar is slender, usually straight and without a plait or tooth. The 

 base is often quite smooth, but frequently spirally scratched or grooved. The 

 ribs cease at the periphery, and if a groove happens to form here, there may 

 be a punctate appearance to the interspaces between the anterior ends of the 

 ribs. It may be worth while to say that a specimen white and fossilized 

 shows the sculpture much better than it would if fresh and living, and fre- 

 quently presents an aspect not offered by the living shell, and which exagger- 

 ates the apparent differences between the latter and the fossils. One who 

 works on both in time recognizes this factor and allows for it; but to a 

 paleontologist pure and simple, or a person who works only on living species, 

 it might and sometimes does prove very misleading. 



The more evenly reticulated specimens come very close to T. reticulata, 

 while the more slender ones can hardly be separated from T. obclisais C. B. 

 Adams. 



Turbonilla reticulata C. B. Adams. 



Chefnnitzia reticulata h.<\%., Contr. Concli., p. 75, 1850. 



Tuybonitta canceltala Holmes, Post PL Foss. S. Car., p. 84, pi. .xiii. figs. 6, 6 a, 6 b, 1859. 



? Turbonitta carotiiiiana Holmes, op. cit., p. 86, pi. xiii. figs. 9, 9 a, 9 b, 1859. 



Newer Miocene of the Cape Fear River, North Carolina, at Mrs. Purdy's 

 and Mrs. Guion's marl-beds, Johnson ; Pliocene of the Croatan and Wacca- 

 maw beds in North and South Carolina, and of the Caloosahatchie beds of 

 Florida ; Post-Pliocene of South Carolina at Simmons's Bluff, Holmes ; living 

 off the coast of the Carolinas and southward to the island of Jamaica in the 

 West Indies, in depths varying from low-water mark to over sixty fathoms, 

 U. S. Fish Commission. 



This species is smaller than T. interrupta and the spiral sculpture has 

 the aspect of threads rather than grooved lines. The ribs usually stop at the 

 periphery, but are sometimes faintly visible in front of it ; the pillar is usually 

 simple, slightly twisted and straight, but occasionally shows a distinct plait. 

 A variety, cingulata, has one of the spiral threads behind the middle of the 

 whorl swollen more than the others, as in Holmes's T. speira, which gives a 



