DESCRIPTION. 127 



cordate ; fore part strongly marked with decussate 

 striae. 



Inhabits the European and American seas. 



PLATE VII. 

 Fig. 1. Hinge of Venus concew^rica. 



Fig. 2. Venus Paphia. 



Shell subcordate, with thickened transverse wrin- 

 kles which are attenuated towards the anterior 

 slope ; lips complicated. 



Lister Conch, t. 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 sec- 

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

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

 be muricate before, from those which are not so, 

 possessing a general subcordate form. There is iu 

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

 phia is included in the same division, which has no 

 more title to the distinction than mariv individuals 



