218 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



described as being somewhat foliaceous or pyramidical 

 in form, and as presenting considerable symmetry ; they 

 are more or less continuous, and are placed around the 

 body in a regular series, beneath the edge of the mantle. 



Three genera are referred to this order — Cliiton, Chiton- 

 ellus, and Patella. 



The great reformer of the Linnsean school, when re- 

 cording, in the sixth volume of his 'Animaux sans vertebres,' 

 a list of only six species of the genus Chiton, never 

 imagined that nearly ten times that number were dwelling 

 on the western shores of the Pacific, and as many more 

 among the rocks of Australia and New Zealand; that, 

 further, the aggregate of these united would, in the course 

 of twenty years, be nearly doubled by the discovery of 

 species in other localities ; yet such are the fruits of recent 

 voyages and discoveries made by naturalists in distant 

 lands. 



The first addition to the tropical species of this peculiar 

 genus was made by Mr. IVembly, on the coast of Chili. 

 The indefatigable researches of Mr. Cuming multiplied them 

 to an unprecedented extent, and we are now indebted to 

 the labours of Mr. Lovell Reeve for the exquisite engravings 

 of these and other species in his ' Conchologia Iconica/ 



