264 TEST ACE A ATLANTICA. 



what shorter, but the entire shell is very much more solid and 

 robust, of a more decided yellowish-white (with no tendency to 

 be sub transparent), with its peristome thicker, and with the 

 two ventral callosities (which appear to be absent in the 

 L. terebella), although very slight and rudimentary, quite 

 traceable. 



In a subfossil condition the L. oryza is tolerably common, 

 though less so than the triticea. It was met with subfossilized, 

 both by Mr. Lowe and myself, at the Zimbral d'Areia. 



I have little doubt that this is the particular ^ Achatina'' 

 which, through the unpardonable inaccuracy of Webb and the 

 after-confusion of d'Orbigny, has been allowed to figure in the 

 Canarian catalogue, for now so many years, and in conjunction 

 tvith the closely allied L. triticea, — first as a portion of the 

 ^A. Paroliniana^ W. et B. (from which it is specifically quite 

 distinct), and subsequently {i. e. since 1852) as the '-A. Tando- 

 niana,' Shuttl. There can be no question that Mr. Webb's 

 carelessness in introducing Madeiran species into his very 

 meagre Canarian list was well-nigh unprecedented. To say 

 nothing of Cape Verde forms which were equally pressed into 

 his service, I need only allude to such Helices as the H. tcvniata 

 and tiarella, which are confined to the single island of Madeira 

 proper but which were cited by him as Canarian, in support of 

 this ; and, therefore, since I happen to be aware that dm-ing 

 1828 Webb collected with Mr. Lowe in Porto Santo, where 

 these two Loveas absolutely swarm (and to which they are 

 peculiar), I should be tolerably prepared, under the circum- 

 stances, not to feel greatly surprised if Webb should have so far 

 confused their habitats as to assign them a place in his Cana- 

 rian ' Synopsis ' on which he was shortly afterwards engaged. 

 This at least has long been an a priori conjecture of my own, 

 which I have been anxious to put to the test whensoever an 

 opportunity for sifting the evidence might arrive ; and it was 

 therefore quite in accordance with my preconceived idea that 

 on examining lately an original type of the 'J.. Paroliniana'' 

 in the d'Orbignyan collection at the British Museum, I found 

 it to be absolutely and unmistakeably nothing but the L. 

 triticea, Lowe, of Porto Santo ! This therefore disposed at 

 once of Webb's '■A. Paroliniana f but there was still the 

 further question — as to what the so-called 'ecZeTitoie/orm' should 

 be referred, which was mixed-up with the ^ A. Paroliniana'' 

 {i. e. the triticea), but of which the type, although said to be 

 in the British Museum, was nowhere to be found. Fortunately 

 the specimens in the cabinet of Moquin-Tandon (who was 

 the first person to discover that two distinct shells had been 

 confounded by Webb under the title of ^Paroliniana'') are 



