478 Systematic Paleontology 



" Eighteen years ago I discussed the synonymy of these shells and 

 showed that if the rules of the British Association, as originally promul- 

 gated, were followed we would have to call the wentle traps by the name 

 Cyclostoma Lamarck. If we overlook the absence of a diagnosis, as is now 

 generally accepted as allowable, Bolten's name Epitonium is available. 

 The anonymous Scala appeared in a sale catalogue which indicated no 

 publisher, and if we continue to use it we can do so only by disregarding 

 the rules. This is probably inadvisable, as the break with the irregular 

 nomenclature would have to come sooner or later, and it is probably best 

 to have it over and done with. If we do not do so, the evil day is only 

 postponed."— W. H. Dall. 1 



The genus has been gradually increasing in prominence since the Tri- 

 assic and is represented in the Becent seas by some one hundred and fifty 

 to two hundred species of " wentle trap " distributed from the polar seas 

 to the tropics and from between tides to abysmal depths. 



A. Axial costals less than eighteen to the whorl. .. .Epitonium marylandicum 



B. Axial costals more than eighteen to the whorl Epitonium cecilium 



Epitonium maeylandicdm n. sp. 

 Plate XVII, Eig. 7 



Description. — Shell of moderate size for the genus, the whorls prob- 

 ably quite numerous and increasing very gradually in size, those of the 

 spire convex and constricted at the sutures ; the body whorl obtusely angu- 

 lated at the base ; early whorls broken away and the apical characters lost ; 

 external surface ornamented with about sixteen acutely angulated, vari- 

 cose costals, separated by symmetrically concave intercostals strongest 

 upon the medial portion of the whorl and evanescent on the base; both 

 costal and intercostal areas incised by linear spirals equisized and equi- 

 spaced, twelve in number on the posterior and medial portions of the 

 whorl; basal sculpture obscure, probably three moniliform spirals in the 

 peripheral region separated by slightly wider interspirals intercalated with 

 finer secondaries, and toward the umbilical region three or four additional 



1 Prof. Paper, TJ. S. Geol. Survey, No. 59, 1909, p. 52. 



