DESCRIPTION. 127 



Specimen white, with obsolete purple rays ; area 

 cordate ; fore part strongly marked with decussate 

 striae. 



Inhabits the European and American seas. 



PLATE VII. 

 Fig. 1. Hinge of Venus concentrica. 



Fig. 2. Venus Paphia. 



Shell subcordate, with thickened transverse 

 wrinkles which are attenuated towards the anterior 

 slope; lips complicated. 



Lister Conch. Tab. 279. 



Specimen white, with interrupted brown rays, 

 spots and lines ; areola cordate, brown ; transverse 

 ribs broad and convex. 



It has been considered a needless increase of 

 sections to separate, as in Gmelin's edition of Lin- 

 nseus's " Systema," those shells which are said to 

 be muricate before, from those which are not so, 

 possessing a general subcordate form. There is in 

 fact but one muricated species, V. Dione ; V. Pa- 

 phia is included in the same division, which has no 



