308 CYPRINID.E. 



Fossil Shells/ from a supposition that the Icelandic 

 shell was not the same as ours. 



Genus III. ASTAB/TE * J. Sowerby. PL VI. f. 3. 



Body suborbicular, compressed : mantle rather thick ; edge 

 plain : foot rather small but strong, and conical. 



Shell more or less triangular, compressed, concentrically 

 furrowed (especially in the young) or striated : epidermis yel- 

 lowish or chestnut-brown, sometimes rayed, and usually thick 

 and fibrous : beaks prominent, slightly recurved : lunule dis- 

 tinct, heart-shaped, or lanceolate : corselet elongated : ligament 

 mostly external : teeth, in each valve three cardinals, the outer 

 one of which on the posterior side in the right valve, and that on 

 the anterior side in the left valve, are small and indistinct ; 

 laterals ridge-like and slight, one on either side in each valve. 



Brocchi in 1814 pointed out the peculiar character- 

 istics of this genus, and provisionally associated the only 

 species then known with Capsa. The author of ' The 

 Mineral Conchology of Great Britain/ Schumacher, and 

 Lamarck gave it in 1816, 1817, and 1818 the several 

 names of Astarte, Tridonta, and Crassina. This shows 

 the order of their relative priority; and although Sow- 

 erby comprised in his genus species which do not be- 

 long to it, viz. Venus Paphia, V. fasciata, and V. sub- 

 cordata, he distinctly stated that A. sulcata was the 

 type. Lamarck placed A. sulcata and A. castanea in 

 Venus. The late Mr. G. B. Sowerby first noticed the 

 relation of Astarte to Cyprina. Scacchi and Philippi 

 considered the animal allied to Cardita. C. F. Romer 

 published in 1842 an elaborate treatise on the genus ; 

 and De la Jonkaire had previously given a monograph 

 of the fossil species. 



* The Phoenician goddess of the Moon, or (according to Cicero) a 

 synonym of Venus. 



