354 VELUTINID^. 



entertained the notion of consiflenng the animal alkided to 

 as his type ; but rather to have so looked upon Bulla 

 hallotoidea, which is the Lamellaria persjncua of this work. 

 In common with Loven, Alder and Gray, we reserve the 

 name Lamellaria for that shell and its congeners. In the 

 Crag mollusca the MSS. genus, Marsenia of Leach, is used 

 in this sense. Coriocella of De Blainville is the same 

 genus, but was founded through a mistake, the mollusk 

 having been supposed to possess no shell. 



Lamellaria is regarded by Lovcn as the type of a 

 family, which in his arrangement, founded on the dental 

 system, he places between Cypreacea and Velutina. In 

 Mr. Gray''s most recent classification, that naturalist fol- 

 lows Loven in the fomily arrangement, but places it far 

 away from Velutina and Naiica (which he oddly regards 

 as Phytophagous mollusks), at the end of his Zoophagous 

 Pectinibranchiata. For the present we are content to 

 keep them in the immediate vicinity of Natica, with which 

 genus, and with Velutina, they have unquestionable affini- 

 ties. The main mass of mantle which envelopes the shell 

 is probably equivalent to the operculigerous lobe of Natica, 

 developed here to a still greater extent, so as to supersede 

 the necessity of an extreme development and replication of 

 the mentum. 



The species of this genus are extremely difficult of dis- 

 tinction, in consequence of the close similarity of the shells. 

 At present it is impossible to say how many forms there 

 are even in Europe; A careful examination and deline- 

 ation of the animals and comparison of the shells made 

 when both are fresh, will be necessary before we can arrive 

 at a sound judgment respecting them. 



