338 LITTORINID A. 
a great impulse from that valuable work, ‘The British Mol- 
lusea,’ wherein the learned Professor and his coadjutor have 
boldly broken through the trammels of the old system, and, as 
far as possible, founded the classification on natural organiza- 
tion, and at a great expense of arduous research, though still 
from necessity retaining hundreds of unmeaning and worthless 
synonyms, expunged and weeded out a multitude of exotic 
species which disfigured and almost choked up our indigena ; 
these are great services, and every naturalist in this Ime will 
feel a lively satisfaction, that by these aids he can now pursue 
a delightful study agreeably to the order of nature. A new 
era has commenced in British malacology; it stands disen- 
thralled from arbitrary and defective dispositions, and in future 
will march hand im hand with its elder sister, conchology. 
And lastly, that I may not be misunderstood on the subject 
of the varieties, I beg to state, that I consider the mention of 
all very desirable, and of great importance as varieties, but 
not as species, and on this point I give an extract from a 
deservedly high authority. M. Philippi says, “Semper varie- 
tates sedulo notavi, hoc etiam valde necessarium duxi, cum 
auctores qui In muszis modo conchylha describunt, id minus 
apte facere possint, quam ille qui centena specimina in maris 
littore ipse colligit et observat ; sed nimium plerumque colori, 
aliisque notis variabilibus, dignitatem tribuant, aut zetates 
diversas pro speciebus diversis sumant, sicut ex. gr. multoties 
cl. Risso fecit.”? This opinion is expressly given swb modo, that 
especial care is to be taken that varieties are not inserted as 
species. 
It now remains to illustrate by examples and impress on the 
minds of young naturalists the value and necessity of the pre- 
ceding observations. Perhaps a stronger case of the improper 
multiplication of species on frivolous grounds cannot be 
brought forward than that of the genus Anomia, which, as I 
believe, only contains a single British species, the Anomia 
ephippium, the mere varieties of which have constituted the 
sixteen or seventeen species that are consigned to our concho- 
logical annals, and are based on the arbitrary and artificial 
distinctions of colour, the various adscititionus markings, and 
