16 
THE NAUTILUS. 
are of equal specific rank, or that two of them are of any specific 
rank whatever; and I base my statement not only upon the varie¬ 
ties of this species here briefly mentioned, but upon many others in 
my collection, from many States and mostly collected by myself. 1 
Why do we not take to our heart of hearts the great truth that 
there are no hard and fast lines in Nature’s record either present or 
past, and hold close the splendid proof given by this shell? 
The foreign student who has not seen all our shells can tell noth¬ 
ing by these names, but if he knows appressa he will have the 
truth suggested by appressa, etc. So, too, our catalogues will be 
something besides names and nobis ! They will be expressive of 
facts in the life history of this humble race. 
This is the method that appeals to me as the scientific, the truth¬ 
ful, the suggestive method ; and I shall never cease to believe in it 
and to work for it. 
NOTICES OF NEW JAPANESE M0LLUSK3, III. 
BY H. A. PILSBRY. 
Siphonaria acmaeoides n. sp. 
Shell oblong, nearly equilateral, but with excentric apex like S . 
radiata A. & R. (Zool. Samarang pi. 13, fig. 2). The even surface 
hardly modified by the 9-16 low, wide ribs, between which it is very 
finely radially striated. Siplional rib wide but low and inconspicu¬ 
ous. Apex spiral, bent down and appressed. Interior blackish or 
chestnut within the muscle impression, outside of which it is radially 
striped black and white, the siplional channel extremely shallow 
and inconspicuous. Color outside whitish-buff, speckled and mac¬ 
ulated with brown, or whitish on the principal ribs, the intervals 
black-brown. Length 12J, breadth 9R alt. 3s mm. 
Prov. Boshiu, Japan (Frederick Stearns). 
This little species very closely resembles Acmoca Heroldi in the 
general form and the coloration of the interior. 
1 Mr. Pilsbry intended appressa, not dentifera for the root, in his diagram. 
The “tree” is seen from above, not from the side.— Ed. 
