164 CONTRIBUTIONS 
GENUS BUCCINUM. Linneus. 
B. Sowerbii.* Plate 5. Fig. 169. 
Description. Shell ovately conical, minutely and trans- 
versely striate over the whole surface; substance of the 
shell rather thick; spire short, mammillary ; suture small ; 
whorls six, convex; mouth ovate; columella slightly 
wrinkled at the base ; outer lip sharp. 
Length .5, Breadth .3, of an inch. 
Observations. This beautiful little Buccinum is the only 
species which has come under my notice from Alabama. 
Its close and beautiful strie are very remarkable. 
Of this genus twenty-sevenf species have been observed 
in Great Britain, several as low as the Mountain Lime- 
stone, but chiefly in the London Clay and the Crag. M. 
Deshayes gives ninety-five species for the Tertiary in his 
Tables. It appears.to be much more abundant in the 
Upper Formations. The Pliocene of the Subappennines 
furnishes twenty-seven species, Bourdeaux (Miocene) twen- 
ty-one, Paris (Eocene) nine. In this country four species 
have been observed. Mr Say has described two from the 
* Named after the author of the “ Mineral Conchology” of Great 
Britain. 
| These include the genus Vassa. 
