258 SPECIES OF THE SYSTEMA. 
with the definition. The expression, however, if not modified 
(as in levigatum) by an allusion to its smoothness of surface, 
will not bear that signification; hence the recognition, how- 
ever plausible, cannot be insisted upon. If we boldly reject 
the ill-harmonising figure of Gualtier, and, regarding the 
proximity of the species in the ‘Systema’ to Nassa reticulata, 
look to the Nasse of the Linnean collection, we shall find that 
Nassa Cuvieri of Payraudeau (Moll. Corse, pl. 8, f. 17, 18) pre- 
cisely accords with both description and locality, and exhibits 
a character, “spire plicate,” incidentally assigned to it by the 
denial of that feature to levigatum in the contrast between the 
two species. The likeness alluded to must be judged of by the 
old standard, and not by our more critical modern notions of 
affinity. Although that shell is present in the Linnean collec- 
tion, where it alone truly answers to the description (and our 
author has asserted his possession of it), so imperfect was the 
definition in the ‘Systema’ that it is scarcely expedient that 
the name nitidula should take precedence. 
Bucci laebtgatun. 
I can find no shell in the Linnean collection, which, upon 
the whole, so well answers to the description of this species as 
the Columbella (Payraud. Moll. Corse, pl. 8, f. 1, 2, 3) already 
recognised by Lamarck for the levigatum of Linneus, but | 
erroneously left by him in the genus Buccinum. The identifi- 
cation, however, must be regarded rather as probable than as 
absolute, since the cited figure of Gualtier, although, perhaps, 
as much like the shell in question as any drawing at that period 
extant, was assuredly not designed for it. So rude, indeed, is 
the engraving, that it is impossible to divine what species of 
Columbella it was intended to represent: it bears some slight 
resemblance to C. nitidula, and certainly was not the species 
described by our author, since, in place of being lineated with 
brown on a pale surface, it is declared in the accompanying 
text to be minutely dotted with white on a reddish ground. 
It is worth while to remark the peculiar use of “striata” for © 
“lineata,” since, from the context, no doubt can exist as to the 
unusual meaning of that term. “ Parva” has been added in the 
