﻿LOXONEMA— MICHELIA. 183 



8. Loxonema priscum, Miinster, sp., var. ? 



A most imperfect specimen from Wolborough in Mr. Vicary's Collection seems 

 to agree in general shape with the most elongate of Sandberger's figures of his 

 Holopella piligera (fig. 9 only), which we regard as a synonym of this shell. 

 The ornament is gone, the whorls are worn and partially broken away, and only 

 part of the spire is visible ; hence it is perfectly impossible to identify it specifi- 

 cally, and it can only be said that it either belongs to this species or to some other 

 at present unrecorded from these beds. 



3. Genus. — Michelia, F. A. Homer, 1852. 



This genus was founded by F. A. Romer for a group of shells which are 

 subulate or spirally conical, with flattened sides, and with longitudinal striae that 

 slope backwards over the whorls until, just above the suture, they turn sharply 

 and suddenly forwards. Their shape is much like that of an elongated top-shell. 

 The mouth is short and subquadrate. They are very like Chemnitz la in general 

 appearance, and except for the angulated character of the striation might probably 

 be taken as equivalent with the group of shells separated by Pictet under the 

 name of Pseudomelania, of which the well-known Chemnitzia Heddlngtonensis, 

 Sow., is an example. These shells, in common with the genera Macrochilina and 

 Loxonema, are separated from the Pyramidellidge by the simpler character of the 

 nucleus. 



De Koninck described in 1877 a genus under the name of Mltchellla, which 

 hardly seems intended to be the same ; but whether it is so or not, some confusion 

 appears to have been caused by authors not having noticed the difference between 

 the English and French way of spelling the name, and hence referring to 

 de Koninck a genus which had long before been founded by Romer. 



1. Michelia, sp. PL XVIII, fig. 6. 



? 1852. Michelia exaltata, F. A. Romer. Beitr., pfc. 2, p. 7-i, pi. xi, fig. 17. 



Description — Shell of moderate size, elongate, spiral, conical, of many whorls. 

 Sutural angle small, rather variable. Suture small, shallow. Whorls eight or 

 more, very narrow, increasing rather rapidly, almost flat over the greatest part of 



