PLATE CLXXX. 



Despectus, and should be fully stated. — Lister's AngL t. 3. /. 1. is 

 the reference given by Linnaeus Adverting to this we find the fol- 

 lowing definition of the shell given by Lister, " Buccinum album 

 laeve maximum septem spirarum."— He further adds, in the general 

 description, " Testae pars exterior ex tota laevis est, i. e. sine striis 

 quamvis saepius vel rugis quibusdam vel aliis rebus extrinsecus adna- 

 tis exasperetur." From this account, and from the figure he has 

 given of the shell, there is not the smallest reason to dispute that 

 Lister means the shell which English writers have heretofore con- 

 sidered as the Murex Despectus*; but it is not less certain that 

 Linnaeus was wrong in quoting Lister's figure for his Swedish shell, 

 since they are not the same. However, on the authority of this 

 reference to Lister, which afterwards appeared in the Systema Naturae, 

 this shell has continnued to be considered as the species meant by 

 Linnaeus. 



Nor was this the only oversight which appears to have been com- 

 mitted by that eminent Naturalist ; by continuing to refer, in the 

 Systema Naturae, to Lister's figure for his species Despectus, no 

 one scarcely could imagine that Lister's shell should be the M. 

 Antiquus of Linnaeus, instead of his Despectus, and yet we are 

 persuaded, after attentively comparing his description of the shells 

 with his synonyms, that such is the fact : the description agrees with 

 it, and the figure given by Gualteri is surely of the same kind as that 

 which Lister speaks of. 



The Linnaean shell, M. Despectus, is well described, and the 

 figure in his Iter. W. Goth, is expressive: the two elevated spiral 

 lines, together with the rotundity of the wreaths, are strikingly 



* la Lister's Plate the shell is reversed by mistake, mostjikely, of the engraver. 



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