220 DE. C. T. TEECHMA^'X OX [vol. Ixxiu^ 



a series of casts at Caroline Cutting, from which I made gutta- 

 percha squeezes. 



Remarks.^ — It closely resembles Spiriferina fragiJis, except 

 that the beak seems rather less bent over the area than in the 

 typical European form. Bittner describes a form called Sjyiri- 

 ferina lilangensis Stol. from the Muschelkalk of the Spiti district 

 of the Himalayas, and remarks on its similarity to Sp.fragiJis ; but 

 the Xew Zealand specimens seem to resemble the European rather 

 than the Himalayan form. Sp. fragiJis was first described from 

 the German Muschelkalk. In the Alps it occurs at Wengen in 

 Upper Ladinic beds, according to Bittner. Piroutet records it 

 from Xew Caledonia. 



Spieifeetxa kaihikuaxa, sp. noy. (PL XXI Y, fig. 15.) 



The area is broad, and extends the whole length of the wings. 

 Some specimens are more sharply alate than others ; but in all of 

 them the hinge-line represents the greatest width of the shell, and 

 the margin contracts rapidly in front of the wings. The ventral 

 valve has a broad, concave, median, rapidly-widening, dorsal furrow 

 with about six low rounded folds on each side of it. The dorsal 

 valve has a broad, rounded, median fold Avith five (in another 

 specimen seven) low rounded folds on each side, which gradually 

 diminish in size. The folds occupy the surface of the shell nearly 

 to the hinge-area. The oTowth-lines are rather coarse. Casts show 

 that the posterior part of the inside of the ventral valve was much 

 filled in witli shelly matter, and that there was a sharp median- 

 septum. 



One specimen measures 72 mm. across the wings and 41 mm. 

 in length ; another less alate example is 46 mm. across the wings 

 and 30 mm. long. 



Locality and horizon. — This is the only large and alatfr 

 Spiriferina that occurs in the Kaihiku Beds, to which it seems to 

 be confined. The Greological Survey possesses some very fine speci- 

 mens, of Avhich, unfortunately, only the internal casts have been 

 preserved. Hector illustrates one of these casts as Trigonoireta 

 alafa} the English Permian form. It comes from the Crinoid 

 Beds at Cowan's Railway Station, Oreti A'alley.^ From another 

 specimen found at Eighty-Eight Valley, Xelson, I was able to make 

 a gutta-percha impression of the exterior of the dorsal valve. I 

 collected some smaller examples at Caroline Cutting. 



Remarks. — This shell occurs in a rather fragmentary condition 

 in the Kaihiku Beds ; but, so far as I can ascertain from the 

 material, the fragments all represent one species, despite varia- 

 tion in the length of the wings and in the number of the lateral 

 folds. It shows some affinity with the small Spiriferina fragilis 

 Avhich accompanies it, in the width of the area and in the continua- 

 tion of the ribs up to the area -margin. The onl}^ described form 



1 Catal. Ind. & Col. Exhibition (1886) p. 76, fig. 3. 



- Prof. P. Marshall and I think that this is the same locality as Caroline 

 Cutting, the name of the station having apparently been changed since the 

 early survey was made. 



