PULMONATA. 71 
Genus 7th. Butimus.*  Scopoli, 1786. 
Buummus, Brug., 1792; Lam., 1801. 
Cocuiba, Adanson, 1757. 
- CocuLostyLa, Férussac. 
Gen. Char.—Shell oval, oblong, or turriculated, smooth, or longitudinally striated ; 
spire obtuse, variable in length and in the number of the whorls, which are generally 
few, and for the most part sinistral; aperture entire, oval, rounded anteriorly; outer 
lip simple, generally reflected and confluent with the columella; inner lip reflected 
over the body whorl; columella smooth. 
This genus, originally proposed by Scopoli, was adopted by Bruguiére, and extended 
so as to comprise animals essentially different in their organisation; many genera 
have, in consequence, been since separated from it by Draparnaud, Lamarck, and 
others. The animal closely resembles that of Helix ; but M. Deshayes states that it 
presents a modification of the organs of generation sufficient for generic distinction. 
The shells may be known from the /Helices by their more elongated spiral form ; from 
the Limuee by the smooth columella, and from Pupa by the more regularly tapering 
spire. 
The genus contains very many living species distributed over the equatorial, 
tropical, and warm temperate regions, as well of the new, as of the old, world. 
According to Mr. Lovell Reevet the localities of nearly 600 species have been 
ascertained; and of these, three fifths inhabit the western hemisphere, principally 
central America ; and a large proportion, rather more than one third, of the remaining 
species is found in the Phillippine Islands. 
Several fossil species, from the Freshwater deposits of the Paris Basin, have been 
described by MM. Brard, Brogniart, Lamarck, Defrance, Matheron, and Deshayes ; 
and two distinct species (B. edlipticus, Sow., and B. politus, nov. spec.,) occur in the 
* The etymology of this word is not ascertained. Adanson in 1757, in his ‘Histoire Naturelle du 
Sénégal,’ applied the name Bulinus to a species of the shells which afterwards formed part of Drapernaud’s 
genus Physa, but which have since been separated by Dr. Leach, under the generic name Aplevus ; and the 
writer of the article “ Limneans,” in the ‘Penny Cyclopedia,’ suggests, and apparently with much proba- 
bility, that the word Bulimus was used by mistake by Scopoli and Bruguiére for Bulizus. Studer seems 
to consider Bulimus to have been intentionally substituted for Bulinus, and says that the alteration is 
altogether inadmissible; and Hartmannn and Mr. Broderip concur in rejecting the name. Herrmansen 
fancifully derives the word from fovArpos, ingens fames, in allusion, I presume, to the voracity of the 
animal. The name Bulimus, however, whatever may be its origin or meaning, appears to be generally 
adopted, and I have therefore retained it. 
+ Mr. Lovell Reeve, “On the Geographical Distribution of the Bulimi,” &c., “Ann. and Mag. of Nat. 
Hist.,’ 2d ser., vol. vii, p. 241. 
