CARDITA.— Plate VI. 



Lamarck. 



the umbones with reddish-brown; ribs one or two 

 and twenty in number, angulated, rather flat, an- 

 terior ones crenated, posterior sometimes a little 

 scaly ; interior white. 

 Chama antiquata, Linnaeus 

 Cardita turgida, 

 Cardita bicolor, 

 Hub. Ceylon. 



Having identified the shell here figured with the 

 Chama antiquata of Linnaeus, by an examination of the 

 very shell described by that illustrious writer in the 

 possession of the Linnaean Society, I restore its ancient 

 title. 



•":} 



The Cardita antiquata varies considerably in its ge- 

 neral characters ; it is more or less produced on the 

 posterior side, as shown by the specimens selected foi 

 illustration, the ribs are more or less crenated, and they 

 are more or less flattened in some specimens than in 

 others. They exhibit ample modification of the charac- 

 ters upon which Lamarck founded his two species C. 

 turgida and bicolor, and cannot be separated with any 

 propriety. I have carefully examined the shells in the 

 Museum at the Jardin des Plantes, alluded to by Des- 

 hayesin his notes on these species (vide Lamarck, Anim. 

 sans vert, (new edit.), vol. vi. pp. 427 and 429), and 

 find abundant proof to show that they are specifically 

 the same. 



