Notes on the Collection 85 



Like the glory of the setting sun at the close of day, 

 is the beauty of the cabinet which marks the completion 

 of our many days' visit to Mrs. Williams' collection. 

 Well may we linger before this very remarkable assem- 

 bly in the centre of which stands the shell which perhaps 

 more than all others has figured in the traditions and 

 held the veneration of conchologists, — Spondylus regius, 

 Linnaeus, the shell for which three hundred pounds 

 sterling was once deemed a low figure in London. It 

 is a magnificent specimen gleaming with rich metallic 

 pink reflections from its scores of bristling spines. 

 About it stand its three-score courtiers representing 

 species and varieties of the Spondylidae, from S. vari- 

 ans, Sowerby, the largest, to S. gussoni, Da Costa, the 

 smallest, and a very rare one. The specimen of S. 

 regius is from the Moluccas and S. gussoni from the 

 Mediterranean Sea. Other exceedingly rare members 

 of this family of very handsome shells, are S. lingua- jelis, 

 Sowerby, from the Philippines, S. ?iux, Reeve, from 

 Ascension Island, the first mature specimen ever ob- 

 tained (1904) of this curious and lovely shell which 

 Reeve described from a young example, and S. castris, 

 Reeve, from the Philippines, having an extraordinary 

 pinkish callosity within. Other notable specimens are 

 S. multimuricatus, Reeve, S. imperialis, Chemnitz, and 

 a fine series of color variations of the flower-like S. 

 pictorum, Chemnitz, from Lower California. 



The allied families of Limidae, Placunidae and 

 Anomiidae are well represented, and the collection is 



