236 patellid^e. 



Patella vulgata*, Limie. 



R vulgata, Linn. S. N. p. 1258; F. & H. ii. p. 421, pi. lxi. f. 5, 6. 



Body brownish-yellow or dusky, with a bluish tinge : mantle 

 fringed with slender cirri or filaments of different lengths and 

 sizes, which correspond with the ribs and striae of the shell ; 

 some of these cirri above the head are much longer than the 

 rest, and are in the proportion of 1 to 4 or 5 of the latter ; 

 the mantle is often edged with a narrow band of a darker 

 colour: head short, bulging, and strong: mouth provided with 

 two lips, which are placed laterally : tentacles awl-shaped, not 

 retractile, darker at their tips ; they curl towards each other 

 and lie flat on the head, when the animal is at rest: eyes 

 small, on slight eminences outside the swollen bases of the 

 tentacles : gills of a drab or yellowish colour ; branchial artery 

 transparent, thicker, and funnel-shaped at its origin, and 

 having smaller veins issuing from it during its course, at a 

 right angle : foot attached to the rest of the body by a series 

 of powerful but short interlacing muscles ; the sole is lead- 

 coloured, or more or less deeply tinged with yellow ; margin 

 thin with a pale border. 



Shell forming usually a regular and somewhat raised cone, 

 solid, opaque, and of a dull hue : sculpture, numerous ribs, 

 which radiate from the apex and become stronger and broader 

 at the lower part or margin ; between each rib are 2 or 3 (some- 

 times more) parallel striae or finer ribs ; in some specimens the 

 ribs are irregularly granulated or studded with knob-like 

 tubercles ; the surface is also covered in fresh and less rubbed 

 specimens with close-set microscopical longitudinal lines, and 

 with numerous but irregular concentric lines of growth : 

 colour greyish or pale brownish-yellow, with often purplish 

 longitudinal rays arranged in duplicate ; it is rarely speckled 

 with white, or of a uniform dusky hue : beak or apex blunt, 

 often worn so as to expose the crown, which is of a reddish or 

 orange tint ; it is sometimes nearly central : mouth or aper- 

 ture roundish-oval, with the broader part behind : margin 

 scalloped or indented by the ribs and intermediate striae : in- 

 side nacreous and glossy, often yellow or exhibiting the coloured 

 rays (especially at the margin) ; it is minutely but irregularly 

 lineated in a concentric direction from the margin to that part 

 which is always covered by the edge of the mantle, and micro- 



* Common. 



