MUREX. 293 
The “faux violacea” of the twelfth edition hints that the 
Rf. horrida was included, but Seba’s figures, though far from 
characteristic delineations of the type, do not represent that 
species. The “faux patula” of the ‘Museum Ulvrice’ is not 
very applicable to the adult state of either Ricinula. 
SMurex wodtts, 
From the very insufficient definition of this species, several 
shells have been suggested as the representatives of it. The 
Murex nodus of Born is clearly not alike in features to that 
described by Linneus; excluding such of his references as 
are inconsistent with his language, the ideal would be some 
such Purpura as the hippocastanwm of Lamarck’s ‘ Animaux.’ 
Schréter and Gmelin have cited, with hesitation, a figure of 
the Purpura hystrix of authors as illustrative: in most respects 
that shell (which is not to be found in the Linnean collection, 
where nodus is declared to be present) corresponds fairly 
enough with the ascribed characters, but the aperture does not 
suit the expression ‘incarnata,” which (as, for instance, in 
Strombus pugilis) has with our author the signification of 
orange-flesh colour. The synonymy of nodus in Dillwyn un- 
fortunately includes so many Purpwre (bu/fo, callosa, pica, &c.), 
that it is not clear which of them he really designed as typical. 
Modern writers, for the most part, make no mention of the 
species; Moérch (Cat. Yoldi), however, believes he has detected 
it in the Purpura deltoidea of Lamarck. Although not a bad 
guess, the accordance is not so perfect as to produce a perfect 
conviction of the identity, and without positive certainty a 
change in nomenclature is not desirable. “ Flava — spinis 
multiplici serie flavis aut nigris” and “ Faux incarnata” scarcely 
suit a white-mouthed shell which is banded with black between 
the few rows of its pale spinous knobs. The truth is that 
neither the ‘Systema’ nor the ‘Museum’ afford any adequate 
details by which we can determine what Purpura was actually 
intended. Under such circumstances even the discovery of the 
original type would give no just priority to the epithet nodus. 
The numerals 541, indicative of this species, are legible upon 
a variety of Purpura hemastoma (Kiener, Purp. f. 78, b) in the 
