Historical Account of Testaceological Writers. 143 



' The ova of some species of Ostrea were treated of in the same 

 work by 



BRACHIUS, 



whose observations, however, were very scanty, the account of 

 them not extending beyond three pages. 



DU MOLINET, 



author of " Le Cabinet de la Bibliotheqiie de Sainte Genevieve" 

 is scarcely entitled to a place among the writers who form the sub- 

 jects of this paper, his work treating almost Avholly of antiquities. 

 Among the plates, however, (which are finely executed,) there is 

 one containing twenty-one figures of shells, which are accompa- 

 nied by names and concise descriptions in the French language. 



In the 17th volume of the Philosophical Transactions we find 

 some communications on the subject of shells addressed to Dr. 

 Lister by a naturalist of the name of 



BANISTER, 



who resided many years in Virginia ; but his descriptions are too 

 vague to enable us to ascertain what species he alludes to. In 

 the same volume is a " Desci'iption of certain Shells found in the 

 East Indies, communicated to Dr. Lister" by 



WITZEN, 



who figured many of them, but was not sufficiently precise in his 

 description to enable the reader to determine all the species. The 

 best figure in the plate is that of an Ostrea found at Goa. 



A similar work to Du Molinet's was the description of the mu- 

 seum of Christian V. king of Denmark, whose librarian, 



OLIGER 



