CANARIAN GROUP. 377 



nevertheless it is, on the average, a little smaller and more de- 

 pressed, its umbilicus is not quite so large, and its entire surface 

 (which is a trifle more shining, or subpellucid) is sparingly 

 clothed, particularly when the shells are young, with fine hairs 

 or cilise. It is usually, too, a little more brightly variegated 

 with pallid markings ; and there are more or less obsolete indi- 

 cations beneath (as in the H. lancerottensis, W. et B.) of a few 

 indistinct spiral, or concentric, bands and line-like rings. 



Helix apicina. 



Helix apicina, Lam.^ Hist. vi. 102 (1822) 

 Xerophila apicina, Held, in Isis, 913 (1837) 

 Helix apicina, Morel., Moll, du Port. 63 (1845) 

 „ „ Pfeiff., Mon. Hel. i. 170 (1848) 



„ „ Morel, Hist. Nat Agor. 174 (1860) 



„ „ Drouet, Faun. Agar. 158 (1861) 



„ „ Pfeif., Mon. Hel. vii. 242 (1876) 



Habitat Teneriffam ; examplaria dua nuperrime communi- 

 cavit Revdus. E. B. Watson. 



Two examples of the H. apicina. Lam., — which occurs in 

 southern Europe, the Azores, and northern Africa, — have lately 

 been communicated by the Eev. R. B. Watson, as forming a 

 portion of the material which was collected in Teneriffe during 

 the expedition of H.M.S. ' Challenger ' ; and as Mr. Watson has 

 kindly permitted me to examine the whole of the species which 

 were found in that island, and which represent the most ordi- 

 nary and commonplace of the Canarian forms, there can be no 

 question whatsoever concerning the perfect accm-acy of its 

 habitat. I possess the H. apicina from Marseilles, Tangier, 

 and Mazagan (in the last of which places it was found by Mr. 

 T. S. Leacock) ; and the TenerifFan individuals agree with them 

 precisely in every particular. 



At first sight the H. apicina might seem to have a little in 

 common with certain examples of the H. lancerottensis which 

 happen to be abnormally depressed ; nevertheless the spire is 

 still more flattened than in even such individuals as these, and 

 the ultimate volution is more suddenly enlarged, — giving the 

 shell somewhat the prima facie contour of the Madeiran H. 

 obtecta and latens, or of Lowe's H. Irus from Mogador. Added 

 to which, the substance is more solid, and the surface (which is 

 free from hairs) is not only more sharply striated but has an 

 appreciable broken-up, or tessellated, fascia immediately behind 

 the suture. Moreover the umbilicus is relatively a trifle larger. 



