426 PATELLID^. 



Plate LXI. figs. 7, 8. 



? Patella vulgata, Linn. Fauna Suecica, ed. 2, p. 534. 



„ „ depressed var, Mont. Test. Brit. vol. ii. p. 476. 



„ aspera? Philippi, Moll. Sicil. vol. i. p. Ill; vol. ii. p. 84 (from 



specimens). 

 „ vulyata, var. /3., Forbes, Malac. Mon. p. 36. 

 „ „ var. 1, Johnston, Berwickshire Club, vol. ii. p. 36. 



„ atUetica, Bean, Brit. Marine Conch, p. 264, f. 108.— Alder, Cat. 



Moll. Northumb. and Durh. p. 71. 

 „ vulgata, var. alhumena. Brown, 111. Conch. G. B., p. 63, pi. 20, f. 12, 

 14. 



In assenting to the separation of this shell from the 

 preceding, we shall probably incur some animadversions. 

 A long and peculiar study of the Limpets has, however, 

 induced us to believe that the characters briefly enume- 

 rated in our diagnosis are of at least equal value to those 

 by which carulea, Candei^ &c., are distinguished from 

 vulgata. 



Ordinarily this shell is rather depressed, yet it is not 

 unfrequently subconical, although it never, we believe, 

 attains to that elevation so customary in aged examples of 

 the preceding species. In form, it ranges from rounded 

 oval, passing through simply ovate, to elliptic, a shape 

 which is far more habitual to it than to vulgata. The 

 substance of the shell is thick, nearly opaque, and squalid 

 white ; externally the surface is more or less adorned with 

 chestnut, reddish brown, or chocolate colour in the inter- 

 stices of the costellse, which latter are always wdiite, 

 though at times sparingly painted wnth brown likewise. 

 In the more characteristic examples, the darker tint of the 

 narrow interstitial spaces alternating with the pure white 

 of the raised portion of the sculpture, presents a very 

 beautiful and frequent radiation ; very often, also, the 

 colouring is disposed in interrupted concentric zones ; 

 sometimes, even, it is almost entirely absent. The in- 



