158 CYMBIINiE. 



Sub-fam. CYMBIIN.E. 



Teeth lunate, apex three-toothed. Foot very large and 

 thick. Shell ventricose. 



The eyes are on the sides of the head at the outer base 

 of the tentacles; the siphon is very short, and the foot is 

 greatly extended and thickened ; it deposits a layer of 

 enamel on the under surface of the shell. Adanson 

 found living young ones in the bodies of many Cymhia, 

 thus proving them to be ovo-viviparous ; the young ones 

 leave their mother when their shells are an inch in length ; 

 there are four or five in each animal. 



Genus CYMBIUM, Klein. 



Shell oval-oblong, ventricose; spire short, nucleus 

 large, globular, deciduous, when present forming an ob- 

 tuse papillary apex ; whorls few, forming a flat edge 

 round the nucleus; apertm'e oblong, wide; columella 

 with several oblique plaits; outer lip thin, simple. 



Syn. Yetus, Adanson. Cymba, Broderip. 



Ex. C. Persicum, Martini, pi. 17, fig. 3. Shell, C. 

 Persicum, fig. 3, a. 



Adanson observes that the high winds of April cast the 

 " Yets" up in such vast quantities as sometimes to cover 

 the shore; the natives of Senegal employ them as articles 

 of diet. The species of this genus are principally in- 

 habitants of the shores of Africa, though one is from 

 Australia and another from the Mediterranean. As dis- 

 tinguished from Melo, the shells are uniform in colour, 

 sombre, covered with an epidermis, and with a deci- 



