1 84 Mr. Cosmo Melvill on the 



A survey of the genus Cypraea (Linn.), its Nomen- 

 clature, Geographical Distribution, and Distinctive 

 Affinities; with descriptions of two new species, 

 and several varieties. By James Cosmo Melvill, 

 M.A., F.L.S. 



(Received April lyt/i, 1888.) 



Cypr^A, or more classically Cypria, is derived from 

 one of the many attributes of Aphrodite, owing, doubtless, 

 to her worship not only having been inaugurated, but for 

 long years principally centralized, in Cyprus, then a luxuriant 

 and smiling island, teeming with industrial wealth.^ 



Horace addresses her as " Diva potens Cypri,"^ and 

 Tibullus, when apostrophizing the goddess thus : 



" Et faveas concha, Cypria, vecta tua," '^ 

 surely pictured her but lately risen from the foam, reposing 

 in some glassy Nautilus shell, her most seemly fairy sea- 

 chariot. Allowance must always be made for mythical as 

 well as poetical license ; yet it is almost impossible to com- 

 prehend how some old writers, as Rondelet, the famous 

 chemist and natural historian of Montpelier, can have 

 supposed the Cowry to have been the dreaded Echcneis^ or 

 Remora, a sucking fish which, on the authority of Herodotus, 

 so clogged the course of Periander's warships at the instance 

 of Venus, as to stay the meditated execution of the youths of 

 Corcyra, and hence, in gratitude to the engine that averted 

 this wholesale massacre, the title of Cypria, or CoiicJia 

 Venerea was bestowed. Certainly this is a primaeval 

 instance of Beauty and the Beast, of earlier date probably 

 than the well-known legend, but we argue that the Cowry 



' .'l^^s Cyprium=:xu'7r^ov, copper. Plin. 34, §20. 



•^ Hor. Od. i. 3. I. 



• Tibullus iii. 3, 4. 



" Cf. Pliny N. H. 9, 25. 



