Historical Account of Testaceological Writers. 149 



(but these were copied from Rumphius); also twenty plates illus- 

 trative of animals and plants of the Charibbec islands, and entitled 

 " Pterigraphia Americana." The last, indeed, appeared in the 

 original cditition, which formed only one volume ; Avhereas the 

 edition of 1764 was, with the various other sets of engravings 

 published by this author, sufficiently bulky to be divided into 



two. 



PLOT, 



the author of the " Natural History of Staffordshire and Oxford- 

 shire," makes some mention in the latter of such Testacea inhabit- 

 ing that county as had fallen under his notice. In his tenth plate 

 we are presented with a figure (viz. 9-) of Buccinum undatum, which, 

 if we are to give credit to this author's account, was found alive 

 in Cornbury Park: but it is evident, from his references to Ron- 

 deletius and Aldrovandus, that the species found there could be 

 no other than the Helix Pomatia. Hence his work should be con- 

 sulted with great caution. 



Contemporary with our countryman Petiver was the celebrated 



RUMPHIUS, 



not only whose pursuits but whose profession was exactly the 

 same as the former's, as he was originally an apothecary at Am- 

 sterdam, where his rich and costly museum acquired the same 

 celebrity as that of Petiver in London. The passion for forming 

 cabinets of natural curiosities, especially of shells, began at this 

 period to be very prevalent in Holland. Rich individuals studied 

 to outvie one another in that country, as much in the expensive- 

 ness and extent of their collections, as in the splendour of their 

 equipages and retinue ; and the sums which were given for i Cedo 

 nulli or a Wenteltrap would appear too enormous to deserve be- 

 lief, if such accounts were not authenticated by the most respect- 

 able 



