296 HELICID^. 



fleeted ; inferior tentacles half the length of the superior, 

 bulbous, and somewhat deflected at tip ; on each side of 

 the oral aperture is a retractUe, palpiform appendage, 

 attenuated at tip, and more or less recurved, nearly as 

 long as the superior tentacles, the bases separated by a 

 fissure in front ; buccal pouch capable of a probos- 

 cidiform protrusion, the aperture furnished with three 

 papillae above and three on each side ; lingual organ 

 semioval, armed with oblique ranges of recurved hooks. 

 Genital orifice at some distance behind the right tenta- 

 cle. 



Shell lanceolate, ovate, or sub-cylindrical, corneous, 

 glistening ; spire generally produced, the last whorl not 

 less than half the length of the shell, and generally much 

 longer. Aperture much longer than wide, narrow and 

 acute posteriorly, rounded anteriorly ; columella arcuate, 

 truncate at base, so as to form a canal ; lip simiale, 

 acute. 



Geogkaphical Distribution. This appears to be 

 strictly an American genus, occupying the regions bor- 

 dering on the mediterranean which separates the two 

 continents, and the intervening islands. If there is any 

 exception, it is in the case of Achatina algira of South- 

 ern Europe, which, judging from the shell alone, may 

 belong to this genus. On this continent it is found as 

 far north as Georgia, all along the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 throughout Texas and Mexico. 



Remarks. As long ago as 1810, De Montfort indi- 



