324 



<&tn\i% xvii 



PlNNArf 



SHELL SUB-BIVALVE, BRITTLE, UPRIGHT, AND FUR- 

 NISHED WITH A BYSSUS; HINGE WITHOUT TEETH, 

 AND THE VALVES UNITED BY A CARTILAGE. 



rudis. 1. Shell oblong, with six or eight longitu- 

 dinal rounded ribs, armed with membrana- 

 ceous vaulted scales. 



Pinna rudis. Linnaus Si/st. Nat. p. 1 1 59. Chemnitz, 

 viii. p. 218. t. 88. f. 773. Schroeter Einl. iii. p. 474. 

 Gmelin, p. 3363. Lamarck Syst. des Anim. p. 112. 

 Pinna nobilis. Born Mus. p. 132.? 

 Lister Conch, t. 373. f. 214. Seba, iii. t. 92. several 

 figures. Enc. Meth. t. 199- f- 3. 

 Inhabits the Mediterranean, Southern, and Asiatic Seas. Lin- 

 ?iaus. Coasts of Guinea, and the West India Islands. 

 Chemnitz. 

 Shell generally about eight inches long, and three inches and a 

 quarter broad ; of a dark red or liver colour ; the vaulted 

 membranaceous scales, which issue from the longitudinal ribs, 

 are large and rather remote, and sometimes towards the mar- 

 gin they become perfectly tubular. 



t The animal inhabiting the Pinnae has the power of affixing itself at pleasure 

 to any substance by throwing out an extensile member, and discharging from 

 its tip a drop of gluten, which by the retraction of the same organ is formed 

 into a silky filament, and by frequently repeating this operation, a thick tuft is 

 formed, by which the shell is fastened in any situation the animal chooses. Of 

 these silky filaments, which are of a rich golden colour, the Ancients wove the 

 robes of State for their Monarchs, and they are still manufactured at Palermo 

 into gloves, &c. 



Two of Gmelin's species, P. sanguinea and P. bullata, p. 3367, are wholly un« 

 deserving of notice. 



