64 Beautiful Shells. 
Cones are either plain or coronated, that is, 
crowned, having rows of projections round the top 
of the shell, like the second of the above figures ; 
and this forms a mark of division into two classes, 
although these classes often run, as it were, one 
into the other, some plain cones having slight irre- 
eularities of surface, and some crowned ones being 
very nearly plain. 
The Common, or Ordinary Cone (Conus gene- 
ralis), Plate V., Fig. 1, is an elegantly-shaped and 
beautifully-marked shell, having much the appear- 
ance of being carved out of some rare kind of 
marble. The Lettered Cone (Conus littoralis), Fig. 
2, appears to be scribbled over with Hebrew, Greek, 
or Arabic characters, and almost every species has 
something peculiar in its markings; clouds and 
veins, and dots, and stripes, and bands, of every 
conceivable shape and mode of arrangement, may be 
met with in these shells, whose surface, when the 
epidermis or outer skin is removed, bears a beau- 
tiful polish. Curious names have been given to 
some of them, such, for instance, as the High 
Admiral, Vice Admiral, and Guinea Admiral, which 
indicate the rank they hold in the estimation of 
collectors. From five to twenty guineas is the price 
at which good and rare ones have been valued, and 
