valve, and a recipient cavity in the left valve, similarly si- 

 tuated. Cyprina was separated, from the circumstance of 

 having an anterior, lateral, remote tooth. Venerupis is very 

 closely allied to Venus ; but the cardinal teeth are paral- 

 lel, and not divergent as in Venus ; they have the habit of 

 perforating and residing in limestone rocks. Sowerby 

 has changed the name of Venerupis and united to it seve- 

 ral transverse species of Venus, such as papilionacea, lite- 

 rata, &c., some of which or perhaps all might enter Schu- 

 macher's genus Tapis. Several other genera have been 

 separated from the Linnaean Venus, such as Calista and Ar- 

 themis of Poli ; Arthemis, Loripes and Meretrix of Ock- 

 en ; Orbiculus, Trigonia, Chione and Tapes of Megerle, 

 and others by Schumacher, but as we are unacquainted 

 with the characters of several of these, we cannot estimate 

 their relative value, though we readily assent to the neces- 

 sity of a reform in this numerous and somewhat artificial 

 group. 



The animal of Venus has the foot rather large and com- 

 pressed ; the mantle is undulated and furnished with a se- 

 ries of cirri ; the tubes are moderately long and imited ; 

 mouth small, semi-lunar ; branchiae not united, broad and 

 short. JLamarck described eighty-eight recent species and 

 fix fossil ones, and Blainville states that Defrance announ- 

 ces forty fossil species. 



One of the most useful of our shells, the Clam, (V. mer- 

 cenaria, Linn.) belongs to this genus, but Schumacher has 

 separated it under the generic name of Mercenaria. It is 

 the shell of which our aborigines, with much persevering 

 labor, formed their wampum beads which they valued so 

 highly, and which they strung together in the form of belts 

 and other ornaments. 



PLATE XXn. 



