Zoological Society. 197 



spurred petal, on which the pollen collects very abundantly, and 

 thence probably finds its way into the interior of the stigma ; the 

 stigmatic head being readily capable of being pushed into the groove 

 of the claw of the petal amid these hairs, a process which Mr. Ralph 

 thinks is performed by the assistance of insects. In some species 

 there are also a set of hairs placed at the throat of the corolla on the 

 two middle petals, the use of which Mr. Ralph thinks to be to shut 

 out the ingress of the proboscis of the insect in that direction. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



July 14, 1846.— Wm. Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Lovell Reeve read a paper containing " Descriptions of forty 

 new species of Haliotis, from the collection of H. Cuming, Esq.": — 



The genus Haliotis affords an unusual abundance of novelty, from 

 the circumstance of it never having been selected for the subject of 

 an illustrated monograph; the species are, moreover, well-defined, 

 and may be easily determined by a careful examination of the varia- 

 tions of sculpture and arrangement of colours. 



The Haliotides are interesting in form as being the most evolved 

 and depressed of spiral shells, and they have been arranged with the 

 Chitons and Limpets as exhibiting the nearest apparent affinity with 

 the non- spiral Gastropods. They present also a singularity of struc- 

 ture in great measure analogous to the orifice in the shell of Fissu- 

 rella or to the fissure in Emarginula. On the left side of the shell, 

 in a direct curve parallel to the inflexed edge, is a row of equidistant 

 perforations, made by the animal in its progress of growth for con- 

 veying the water to the breathing organs ; the mantle is slit in that 

 direction to a certain extent, and the water passes into the respiratory 

 cavity through a tubular filament protruding from each hole. The 

 number of pallial filaments being alike in the same individual through- 

 out its several stages of growth, the shell mostly presents the same 

 number of holes at all ages, filling up the hindmost orifice as a new 

 one becomes formed at the margin. The Siliquaria presents a similar 

 modification of structure, and it has been also considered that the 

 slit in Pleurotoma is in some measure analogous. 



The internal surface of the ' Ear Shells ' is lined with a bright 

 pearly nacre, which in most species is of remarkable iridescent bril- 

 liancy, glowing with all the colours of the rainbow ; the attention 

 must, however, be directed to the outer coating of the shell, for the 

 discrimination of species, and it is with this view that the figures in 

 the foregoing monograph are devoted mainly to external sculpture. 

 There is certainly a striking variation of character in the nacre of 

 different species, but the pattern of the inner surface is merely an 

 indentation of the outer. The number of perforations varies in dif- 

 ferent species, but may be said to correspond in different individuals 

 of the same species ; where an exception occurs, it is that there is 

 sometimes one, or at most two, less in the adult than in the young 

 state ; that is, when the animal arrives at maturity it continues to 

 stop up one or two of the perforations in advance of any new one. 



