THE NAUTILUS. 



VOL. X. DECEMBER, 1896. No. 8 



PURPURA LAPILLUS, VAR. IMBRICATA. 



BY R. E. C. STEARNS. 



Nearly sixty years ago I detected in the interstices between the 

 granite blocks that formed the seawall on the outerside of Harrison 

 Avenue in Boston, where said highway touches the waters of the 

 South Cove in the immediate vicinity of the South Boston bridge 

 (as it then existed), numerous specimens of Purpura lapillus ; the 

 entire surface of all the specimens was evenly and beautifully im- 

 bricated, and the specimens were of a dingy white color. 



Here was a colony quite distinct in sculpture from the usual ex- 

 amples, as seen at numerous places along the coast in the neighbor- 

 hood of Boston. I compared them at the time with the series of 

 this species, as exhibited in the table cases of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History ; at that date the museum of said society contained 

 no examples with the above sculpture characteristics, nor have I 

 seen any since among the hundreds of specimens I have collected 

 and handled. I made pen and ink drawings at the time, but both 

 shells and drawings have long since passed from view and went, 

 perhaps, to what Mr. Mautalini called the " demnition bow-wows." 

 It is not at all uncommon to find P. lapillus, its varieties and allied 

 forms, imbricated, more or less, but the specimens referred to and 

 contained in my museum when I was a boy, were closely and evenly 

 imbricated throughout, over the entire surface. 



