V L 11 T A . 



Species 18. (Fig. «, b, v, d, Mus. Cuming, and 

 PI. IX. Fig. 18 e, Mus. Hudson.) 



V()T,UT.\ MUsiCA. Vol. testa ovatd, crassd, iasipeculiariter 

 recurvd, spird nunc breviusculd, nunc exsertd, apice 

 suboblusd ; anfradibus Ixvigatis, aupeme angidato- 

 decUvibus,fortiter tuberculatis, iuberculis in cost is plus 

 minus obsoletis descendentibns ; albidd aut fulvescente- 

 carned, md castaneo, aut caruleo, md roseo, vet 

 aiirantio tinctd et nebtdatd, lineis fuscis conspicui tri- 

 fasciatd, interstitiis lineis subundatis, e mturii descen- 

 deutibus, longitudinaliter notatis, areis inter fasciis cre- 

 hemriie fusco-punctatis, maculis nigris subirregulariter 

 marginatis, aperturd carneo-aurantid, labro nigro-ma- 

 culato. 



The music; Volute. SheU ovate, thick, peculiarly re- 

 curved at the base, spire sometimes rather short, 

 sometimes exserted, rather obtuse at the apex ; whorls 

 smooth, angidarly slanting round the upper part, 

 strongly tubercled, tubercles descending in more or 

 less obsolete ribs ; whitish or fulvous-flesh tint, 

 stained and clouded with chestnut, or rose, or blue, 

 or orange, conspicuously encii'cled with three bands 

 of brown lines, marked longitudinally in the inter- 

 stices with slightly waved lines descending from the 

 sutures, areas between the bands very closely dotted 

 with brown, and somewhat irregularly edged with 

 black blotches, aperture flesh-orange, hp spotted with 

 black. 



LiNX.«us, Syst. Nat. (13th. edit.) p. 119-t. 



Varietates. 



Valuta cJdorosina, Lamarck. 

 Volida thiarella, Lamarck. 

 Volida carneolata, Lamarck. 

 Valuta lavigata, Lamarck. 

 Volida sidcata, Lamarck. 

 Valuta noduhsa, Lamarck. 



Valuta Guvmicu, Lamarck. 

 Valuta Chiineeiim, Chemnitz. 

 Valuta plicata, Dillwyn. 

 ffab. West Indies. 



This very beautiful and well-known shell appears to 

 have discoursed most eloquent music to the mind of 

 Lamarck ; for under it he has comprehended eight species, 

 indicating so many varieties of one and the same. The 

 richly-colom-ed specimen of broad and solid growth and 

 prominent tubercles. Fig. 18 5, c, may be regarded as the 

 type of the species. V. chlarasina, on the authority of 

 M. Kiener, is the same in bad condition. V. tluarelln, 

 characterized by its elongated growth and pale coloming, 

 is the variety Fig. \%d. V. Guinaica, distingiushed by its 

 rich violet and brown-clouded colouring, is represented by 

 the variety Fig. 18 a. V. carneolata, knowij to collectors 

 by its delicate pink colouring and smaller size, is figured at 

 PI. IX. Fig. 18 e. V. sulcata is a light fawn variety, 

 approaching in size and appearance to the last, in which 

 the ribs depending from the tubercles, more or less obsolete 

 in aU the varieties, are rather more prominent in this, 

 whOst the shell is not uirfrequently granulated. V. lavi- 

 gata is founded upon a state of the species the reverse of 

 the preceding, liaving little indication of ribs or tubercles; 

 and V. uodulosa, according to M. Kiener, is a variety in bad 

 condition, probably graniUated. 



It is almost needless to particularize varieties, excepting 

 tridy to show of what these Lamarckian species are con- 

 stituted, and of which the intermediate states may be seen 

 in the Cumingian and other collections. The same design 

 of painting, consisting of two broad bands of blotched lines, 

 with intermediate areas of dots, pervades the whole ; and 

 the tubercles are only the more prominently developed as 

 the shell is less narrowly elongated iu growth, arising out 

 of a more contracted i)laii of convolution. 



November, IS-t'.i 



