MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 221 



comprised Nassas, a Tritonium, etc., neither the genus nor the species being 

 described or figured. 



Link gives a proper diagnosis for the group, and cites, with references to fig- 

 ures, the two species, and only the two species, of which it is composed, even 

 at the present day. 



Distortrix reticulata Link. 



Cassis vera, Distorsio reticulata, alba. Martini, II. p. 85, figs. 405, 406, 1771. 

 Buccinum reticulatum Humphrey, Mus. Calonnianum, p. 34, No. 620, 1797. 

 Murex anus L., Gmelin, Auctorum, pro parte. 

 Distorsio reticulata Bolter), op. cit., p. 133, No. 1674. No description or figure. Ed. 



ii. p. 94, No. 1689, 1819. 

 Distorsio clatrata Bolten, op. cit., No. 1675. 

 Distorta acuta Perry, Conch. Expl., pi. x. fig. 1, 1811. 

 Distortrix reticulata Link, op. cit., p. 123, 1807. 

 Murex mulus Dillwyn, Cat. Sh., II. p. 704, No. 45, 1817. 

 Triton clathratum Lamarck, Enc. Meth., t. 413, fig. 4; An. s. Vert., IX. p. 186, 1822; 



ed. Deshayes, IX. p. 637, 1843. 

 Triton cancellinus Deshayes (non Roissy) in Lam., IX. p. 637, note, 1843; Reeve, 



Conch. Icon. Triton, pi. xii. fig. 45, 1844. 

 Distorsio cancellinus Tryon, Man., p. 35, III., 1881. 

 >Distorsio clathrata (Lam.) Morch, Malak. Blatt, XXIV. p. 34. 

 <Distorsio acuta Perry (var.) occidentalis Morch, op. cit., 1877. 



The name of this species has suffered from a slip of the memory by Deshayes, 

 who stated in the note on p. 637, above referred to, that Roissy had named 

 this species cancellinus. A glance at Roissy's work (Sonnini, Suites de Buf- 

 fon, Hist. Nat. Moll., VI. p. 56, 1805) will show that this is an error. He de- 

 scribes his Murex cancellinus, and then goes on to say that it is " found fossil at 

 Grignon," and that "according to M. Lamarck this Murex is the very remark- 

 able analogue of the grimace blanche (our present species) which has been re- 

 garded as forming a variety of the Murex anus of Linnasus, but which forms a 

 very distinct species, now living in the Southern Ocean." He gives a reference 

 to Lamarck's figure of the Grignon fossil, and also a reference to Martini's 

 figure of the recent shell, but, as the citation shows, did not confound them or 

 name the latter. Reeve and others have followed this note of M. Deshayes, 

 without referring to Roissy, and so this error has been perpetuated for nearly 

 half a century ! 



Link merely followed Humphreys and Bolten in adopting the specific 

 name of reticulata, suggested by Martini's phrase many years before. As 

 both appropriate and ancient, it seems to have preponderating claims to 

 be adopted. 



The Cassis or Cassida penita of Meuschen in the Museum Gerversia- 

 nium, which I have not been able to consult, is probably the oldest bino- 



