74 



THE MUSEUM. 



definite enough,* and needs no term 

 implying qualification or indecision. 

 And the correspondmg variety in hor- 

 tciisis is iiicarnata. To classical Latin 

 this word is unknown: in mediaeval 

 Latin it would, of course, be common, 

 as meaning having become flesh. 

 What was running in the namer's sub- 

 stitute for a mind was apparently the 

 idea of flesh-colored, and the fancy 

 that incaniatiis referred to a tint, and 

 not an operation or a state. From 

 cherry-red to pink, grade the hues of 

 both rubella and incarnata, and rubra 

 would exactly and acurately describe 

 both. And then the yellow grounded, 

 transparent banded variety of liorten- 

 sis is, if you please, called arcnicola, 

 or the denizen of the sands! For my- 

 self, I have never found Iiortcnsis of 

 any variety on one of the sand-hills I 

 have searched, and I never found any 

 one who could guess- why this name 

 was supposed to be appropriate. I did 

 indeed once find on the Deal dunes or 

 Sandwich sand-hills one or two of the 

 corresponding variety of nemoralis — 

 i.e., Jiyalo^.onata; and as this was (like 

 all the forms of nemoralis I have seen 

 that have no pigment-producing power 

 for their bands) not black-lipped, 1 

 might, if unobservant and foolish 

 enough, have taken it for Iiortcnsis, 

 and have called it arenicola, though 

 dozens of other varieties abounded in 

 the same position, and would be equal- 

 ly entitled to the name. I suppose the 

 namer of arcnicola has long become 

 humicola, and we cannot interrogate 

 him as to what he might be pleased to 

 call his reason for giving this name. 

 Peace, therefore, to his ashes! 



Is it really impossible for British 

 conchologists to determine on the com- 

 mon adoption of an intelligible nomen- 

 clature, and, considering how undoubt- 

 edly allied are the two species, nemor- 

 alis and hortensis, to adopt the term 



Does not this, like all of the color variations 

 dignified with the mis-applied title of var- 

 ieties, shade into its fellows, and may not 

 this be the real reason of the qualifjing 

 name?— Ed. 



lutea for what is called libclliila in one 

 and lutea in the other; rubra for what 

 is rubella in one and incarnata in the 

 other; and Iiyalozonata for the hyalo- 

 zonata of nemoralis and the arefticola 

 of Iiortensis}\ 



I pass on to give a few notes on the 

 differences between nemoralis and hor- 

 tensis, which, by the consent of the 

 majority of conchologists, are distinct 

 species, although M. Souverbie, Cura- 

 tor of the Bordeaux Museum, waxed 

 very vehement when discussing the 

 matter with me, and maintained they 

 were only varieties. 



Others, in earlier days, maintained 

 that the two species were so allied 

 that there was a hybrid form, which 

 form we should now call simply H. 

 hortensis var. fuscolabiata. I have 

 never seen nemoralis and hortensis 

 pairing, although I have carefully look- 

 ed out for instances, nor have I met 

 any one who has This is a strong 

 argument for their diversity, although 

 an occasional paring would not prove 

 them to be the same species. 



The second difference is an anato- 

 mical one, the obvious and unvarying 

 difference between the darts of the two 

 species. That of nemoralis is straight 

 and very like the Roman short sword; 

 that of hortensis is curved. The 

 length of the dart in nemoralis is 7-8 

 mm. ; that of hortensis only 4 mm. 

 The observation of the dart is of espec- 

 ial value when a form is found with 

 white peristome and transparent bands 

 associated with undoubted nemoralis. 

 Is it a stray arenicola} or is it the 

 much rarer Iiyalozonata form oi nemor- 

 alis? The shells tell you little; the 

 darts leave you no doubt. In fact, as 

 nemoralis var. albolabiata is so rare 

 in most places, it is always well to 

 verify it by an examination of the 

 dart. 



t Or perhaps if the sugsjestion made by Mr. 

 B B. Woodward in "The Zoologist" 

 (Nov , 1885, ''On some variations in Helix 

 arbuslorum, Linn.), of simply using the 

 "terms, yellow, red or white variations" 

 and phrases such as, "with transparent 

 bands," and so on, in conjunction with 

 the band formulae, was followed, Ihe dif- 

 ficulty would be met.— £d. 



