SECTION X. 227 



the ^ubjefts propofed, I have allotted them 

 the name of Rhombi. PL V. fig. 2. 



In the elder authors we find a fet of 

 Shells called Rhombi, feemlngly a meer 

 faritaftic name without naeaning or appli- 

 cation. Thus Columna makes Rhombus, 

 Turbo, Strombus, and Trochus, all fyno- 

 nymous terms. Lifter, as I have obferved 

 before, calls the Volutes and Olives, Rhom- 

 bi, or Strombi ; and Sibbald, Wood- 

 ward, &c. do the fame ; but in the later 

 or modern authors, we feldom fee the 

 name of Rhombus ufed. This confufioii 

 apparently arifes from the double mean- 

 ing of the Latin word Rhombus^ which not 

 only fignifies a lozange or rhombic figure, 

 but alfo a reel, a fpinning-wheel, a whirl, 

 or other rolling inftrument ; and it is from 

 this laft fimilitude the Olives and fuch- 

 like Shells have been called Rhombi by 

 the elder authors, and not from a lozange 

 or rhombic figure, as fome have erroneoufly 

 imagined. 



Q 2 However, 



