138 



VENERIDiE. 



G. getnma 

 Enlarged. 



riorly, wliere it has the purple color of the outside ; muscular and 

 pallial imi)ressions distinctly marked, the latter with an 

 acute sinus ; teeth divergent, the middle one in each valve 

 stout and triangular, the anterior tooth of the right, and 

 the posterior one of the left valve thin, and not easily dis- 

 tinguished ; inner margin crenulated. Length, three twen- 

 tieths of an inch ; height, one eighth of an inch ; breadth, 

 one sixteenth of an inch. 



This beautiful little amethystine gem, as it has been appropriately 

 called, is found in great abundance on all the sandy shores of Mas- 

 sachusetts Bay. Colonel Totten also found it in Newport Harbor. 

 Beyond this its range is not known. [Fisliing Banks ( Willis} ; 

 Green Island (^Bell).~\ It was noticed by some of the early visitors 

 to New England, and specimens of it were sent home to England 

 among other curiosities. It is, therefore, not a little remarkable, 

 that a shell so long ago observed should have remained, until ver}^ 

 lately, undescribed. But it is only recently that it has been recog- 

 nized as a distinct species and described by Colonel Totten. It is 

 commonly regarded as the fry of the quahog (^ Venus mercenaria), 

 on account of its purple tip. But on close examination it will be 

 found to l)e a fully developed, mature shell, different in every im- 

 portant particular from that species. It is a very interesting shell, 

 as being by far the least of any species of the genus known. 



Gemma Manhattensis. 



Shell small, trianp'ular, solid, sinning-, beaks nearly central, grooved with re- 

 mote, concentric furrows, iinier niarqin crenidated. 



Venus [Gemma] Mmihattensis, Prime, Ann. New York Lye. vii. 482 (woodcut) (1852). — 

 Jay, Catal. 4th ed. Suppl. 400. 



^'°- '^^- Shell quite small, elevated, nearly triangular, 



with the apex nearly central and the ventral mar- 

 gin rounded, the posterior end more rounded than 

 the anterior ; valves rather solid, compressed, of 

 a straw color, shining, and very regularly fnr- 

 rowed with distinct concentric grooves. Interior 

 wliite, the siphonal sinus very small, and the 

 margin clearly crenulated ; muscidar im])ressions 

 quite distinct. Length and height one eighth 

 of an incli ; l)rcadth, one sixteenth of an inch. 

 Found in East River, New York, near Hell-Gate, by Mr. Prime, 

 and l)y Mr. Sanderson Smitli at Greenport, Long Island. 



G. Manhattensis. 

 Enlarged. 



