ASTARTE. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Shell siiborbiciilar, generally transverse, eqnivalve, in- 

 aeqnilateral, closed entirely : hinge with two ^rong, dis- 

 tinct, diverging teeth on one valve, and on the other two 

 very unequal teeth and a lateral obsolete one : ligament 

 exterior : muscular impressions two and a minute one 

 above the posterior impression, almost confluent with it : 

 impression of the mantle simply arquated, distinct. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



A genus, containing but a small number of s}]ecies, in- 

 stituted by Sow^erby under the name we have adopted. 

 Lamarck appears not to have been aware of the previous 

 existence of this genus, when he published it under the 

 name of Crassina in his Anim. sans Vertebr. He referred 

 it to his Nymphacees Tellinaires ; but we agree with Sow- 

 crby, in the opinion, that its proper place is with his 

 Conques Marine ; from all of which, it is distinguished by 

 its cardinal teeth and interior impressions. 



Blainville in his " Manuel de Malacologie et de Conchy- 

 liologie" places it as a division of his genus Venus, under 

 the following characters : 



" Solides, epaisscs, suborbiculaires, subequilaterales ; 

 deux tres-grosses dents divergentes sur unc valve, et deux 

 tres-inegales sur I'autre ; les impressiones musculaires rc- 

 unies par une ligule sans sinuosite posterieure." He in- 

 forms us that Defrance has announced the existance of 

 eighteen fossil species, and we described two in the Journ. 

 Acad. Nat. Sc. 



PLATE I. 



