6 Proceedings. 
Butts at Reigate by the remarks of the President of the Mala- 
cological Society, Lieut.-Colonel H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., 
10th June, 1898. In alluding to my Dover specimens he said 
that it would be interesting to find out the time when Helix 
pomatia first made its appearance in England. He had found 
it associated with a horn of roe-deer near the Rifle Butts at 
Reigate, and the occurrence of roe-deer in this part of England 
certainly went back far into the past. 
Commencing with our largest snail, H. pomatia, Linn., com- 
monly called the “Roman” or “apple” snail, both of which 
designations are probably erroneous, its specific name “ pomatia” 
is probably not derived from “pomum” an apple, but from 
apa an operculum or cover, three splendid specimens of which 
are before you, one of them (from Reigate) with a sinistral 
whorl. The répa or epiphragm is the cover by which the snail 
seals itself up in its winter burrow. The material is exuded 
all round the mantle like liquid plaster of Paris, and hardens 
into a firm cover just exactly as such a liquid would do. It is 
evident that to do this the aperture of the snail must be hori- 
zontal, and the writer of the article ‘‘ Helicide” in the ‘English 
Encyclopedia,’ * quoting M. Gaspard and Professor Bell, gives 
an elaborate account of the whole process which is too long for 
quotation. 
The other title “* Roman snail” is also probably erroneous. 
Various accounts of the introduction of the snail into Britain 
have been given. It has been attributed to the Romans, who 
were very partial to it as an article of diet, fattening it, accord- 
ing to Pliny, on new wine boiled down and meal, in regular 
*snaileries” or ‘Cochlearia.” Varro (who must have been a 
good hand at the long-bow) credits them with growing so large 
that they held 10 quarts ! 
Among the reasons that make for the H. pomatia being 
indigenous, is the fact that it is found in a much more rigorous 
climate than England, viz., Sweden, whither the Romans did 
not penetrate. It is also a remarkable fact that although the 
* Eng. Encye. vol. ix. p. 64, art. “ Helicide.” 
