INTRODUCTION. 9 



the other is more or less deeply toothed, and at 

 maturity both perhaps are angular and flat. The 

 spire is then depressed, or rather retuso-umbilicate ; 

 and the shells, having undergone as great a variety 

 of changes in the painting as in the form, are at 

 length recognised legitimate Cypraise. ManyStrombi 

 have at first a great similarity to the genus Conus; 

 the winged or lobed lip is wanting ; the massy spines 

 are merely tubercles; the body of the shell, instead 

 of being beset with them on all sides, is but slightly 

 undulated, and the sutures are papillary or crenate. 

 Sometimes, though the body and the spire be quite 

 as large as in an adult specimen, there is not the 

 slightest appearance of a tendency to lobes in the 

 outer lip, and even the canal has the direction 

 rather of a Buccinum or Murex, than of a Strombus : 

 in such a case it is extremely difficult, without pre- 

 vious information, to detect the specific character. 

 The Murices have their spines and fohations formed 

 regularly as the whorls increase, and it does not 

 seem probable that they receive any further altera- 

 tion, after their first construction. The spines, &c. 

 usually increase in size in propoL^ion to the diameter 



