36 LAND SHELLS. 



promise of "botli beauty and sweetness, wlien tliese fair 

 flowers sliall liave died away; and the clusters of 

 leaves, arranged in dense rosettes, of tliat caustic 

 plant, the Spurge [Eujpliorhia Portlandica), were so 

 numerous as to be quite characteristic of the 

 place. 



The terrestrial Mollusca made up by their profusion 

 and variety the paucity of the marine kinds. The 

 common Garden Snail (Helix aspersa) was scattered 

 by myriads on the heaps of loose stones, and, on turn- 

 ing over the heaps, they were found as thickly lodged 

 in the interior. The more beautiful Banded Snail 

 [H. nemoralis) was also common and particularly 

 large ; indeed there seems something in this stony 

 island favourable to the development of bulk in its 

 natural history ; for I observed that many of the plants 

 and animals which it yields in common with other 

 places had attained more than wonted size. There 

 was the Heath Snail {TI, ericetorwn), a little species 

 prettily banded with brown, with a large umbilicus 

 perforating the centre of the shell nearly through and 

 through ; the Silky Snail {H. sericeci) — at least I 

 think it was this species — the shell slightly woolly, 

 with a surface of short hairs ; and the Stone Snail 

 {H. lapicida), with a deep umbilicus, and a sharp edge 

 or keel running round each whorl of the shell. The 

 name of Lajyicida or Stone-cutter, which Linnaeus 

 conferred on this pretty Snail, refers to no peculiarity 

 of habit that I am aware of, except that of frequenting 

 stony places ; though, to be sm*e, there is no other 

 trade so suitable to an inhabitant of Portland as this 

 of stone hewing, which engages the attention of nine- 



