MONOGRAPH OF BRITISH LAND AND FRESHWATER MOLLUSCA. 69 
GENUS ASHFORDIA Taylor (nov. gen.). 
}EREWITH a new genus is instituted for the 
} reception of the Helix granulata of Alder, whose 
internal structure is so strikingly different from that 
of Hygromia that they cannot logically be grouped 
together, although the shells are so similar in their 
general aspect. 
The name Ash/ordia is here proposed to emphasize 
the peculiarities presented by the typical species and 
also to honour and perpetuate the memory of the late 
Mr. Charles Ashford, of Christchurch, the well-known 
and skilful malacological anatomist, who first demon- 
strated the distinctive character of its organization. 
The very close convergence in external aspect of Ashfordia and certain 
species of Hygromia, due to their adoption of a similar mode of life, has 
hitherto led to their being universally but incorrectly associated together, 
a proceeding which their divergent organization clearly forbids. 
‘Nhe ANIMAL, which offers no special features, is pale and translucent, 
faintly granulate, and besprinkled with minute opaque-whitish dots. 
The SHELL of Ashfordia is characteristically globose, of a thin, somewhat 
translucent, and feebly calcified texture, showing no trace of the paler 
peripheral zone occasionally present in Hygromia, and the whole surface is 
beset with numerous long, erect, and persistent whitish hairs arising from 
a bulbous base and arranged in oblique rows which cross the lines of 
growth ; the umbilicus is very narrow, and partially overshadowed by the 
reflection of the columellar mar gin ; and the peristome is thin and simple, 
with a weakly developed white submarginal rib. 
INTERNALLY, this genus is broadly separated from Hygromia and the 
typical /elices generally by the right tentacular retractor having its course 
quite to the left of the genitalia and free from entanglement with them. 
The genitalia are reduced by atrophy to an almost primitive simplicity, 
the dart sacs, mucus glands, etc., which undoubtedly were formerly pos- 
sessed, having become lost by degeneration ; the penis-sheath is short and 
bulky, possibly harbouring a fleshy egersidium or excitatory organ, and is 
prolonged into an epiphallus, terminated by a short flagellum. 
The Jaw is very broad and deeply lunate, divided into two distinct areas, 
the broad upper part being colourless and translucent, while the hardened 
chitinous, and amber-coloured lower area is comparatively narrow, tapering 
off at the ends; there are numerous slight, flat, outwardly convex divergent 
ribs, which extend quite across the jaw and slightly crenulate the margins, 
with occasionally a median projection on the cutting-edge. 
‘The RADULA as exemplified in the type species is quite distinctive in 
character from Hygromia, and remarkable for the feebly developed ecto- 
cones of the median series and for the strong bifid mesocone and the bi- 
and tri-furcation of the ectocones of the marginal teeth. 
The geographical range and the species which may be ultimately allo- 
cated to this group are alike still problematical, as it is not certainly 
known to occur outside the British Isles, and additions to the group awaits 
careful anatomical study of the probably allied continental species. 
