Br. H. Woodward — Recent and Fossil Pkurotomarm. 437 



Guadaloupe, in the great bay of Poiate-a-Pitre, in 150 fathoms ; 

 Barbadoes, 69 fathoms (dead) ; 94 and 200 fathoms (living) (see 

 Journal de Conchy liologie, 1861, tome ix. p. 163, pi. v. ; and 1882, 

 Yol. XXX. p. 12, pi. i.). 



Fl. BumpJiii is the largest of living Pleurotomarioe, being 190 

 millimetres in diameter, and 170 in height. M. Crosse considers 

 it to appi'oach most nearly to PL Adansoniana, but the height of PL 

 Rumpliii is double that of PL Adansoniana or of PL Beyrichii, and 

 nearly four times that of PL Quoyana. It is, says M. Crosse, a 

 veritable giant of the genus (op. cit. 1882, vol. xxx. p. 10). This 

 interesting specimen is figured, from a photograph, by A. J. 

 Wendel, and described by M. Schepman, in the Tijdschr. der Ned. 

 Dierk. Vereen. Leiden, 1882, Deel VI. p. 23, pi. ii. figs. 1-3. Its 

 habitat is said to be the Moluccas. M. Schepman discovered it 

 among a number of shells from Molucca, in the Museum of the 

 Zoological Gardens, Kotterdam, where the specimen is still preserved. 



From the annexed table of species of Pleurotomariidoe, it will be 

 seen that the 400 extinct species, known to Dr. S. P. Woodward 

 in 1854, have now grown to nearly three times that number ; whilst 

 the gap which formerly existed between the Cretaceous and the recent 

 forms is now bridged over by eleven species from the Tertiary and 

 Quaternary deposits of various countries. Nevertheless one is re- 

 luctantly compelled to admit that, although not extinct, Pleuroto- 

 maria is a genus of the past, and that, numerically speaking, its 

 sun has set, both as regards individuals and distinct species, when 

 compared with the grand extension the genus enjoyed in Jurassic 

 times, indeed from the Chalk formation to the Silurian epoch. [See 

 Table, on p. 438. For the enumeration of the fossil species summa- 

 rized in this table, I am indebted to tny friend and colleague in the 

 Geological Department, Mr. E. Etheridge, F.R.S.] 



In quoting these figures as a census of species of Pleurotomarice, 

 it must always be borne in mind, that, as regards at least a large 

 number of the Palfeozoic species, although they have been referred 

 to Pleurotomari(S, they may possibly belong to quite a distinct genus, 

 as we are entirely unacquainted with the animal itself. 



We give on PI. XI. Fig. 2, a representation of a very well-known 

 and beautiful form of Pleurotomaria [PL reticulata, Sby.) common to 

 the Coral Rag of Weymouth and the Kimmeridge Clay of Wotton 

 Bassett. This species is interesting as illustrating Dr. S. P. Wood- 

 ward's observation on the genus (" Manual of the Mollusca," 1st 

 edition, p. 147), that " specimens from Clay-strata retain their 

 nacreous inner layers ; those from the Chalk and Limestone have 

 lost them, or they are replaced by crystalline spar." 



It will be observed that PL reticulata attains a size almost, if not 

 fully as large as PL Beyrichii, but the slit-band in this fossil species 

 is supramedian, and not inframedian as in PL Beyrichii. The whorls 

 in PL reticidata are rather more angular than in the Japanese species 

 figured with it (Fig. 1) ; but the style of ornamentation has varied 

 but little in this genus since Jurassic times. 



In reference to the genus Pleurotomaria, Mr. W. H. Dall has the 



