Mr. G. Barlee on some British species o/Chemnitzia. 483 



My object, however, in intruding myself before your readers 

 is simply to endeavour to rescue from total annihilation, by my 

 eminent malacological friend Mr. Clark, from whom I have ever 

 received much courtesy and consideration, two of my rather 

 recent discoveries, the Odostomia truncatula of Jeffreys, which I 

 found imbedded in the roots of coralline, trawled up near the 

 Eddystone lighthouse, and which Mr. Clark states to be the adult 

 of Odostomia cylindrica (the Turbo nivostis of Montagu), and the 

 Eulimella affinis, Phil., first taken by me in deep water outside 

 Oban Sound, and which he considers identical with Eulimella 

 acicula. 



I must here remark, that Mr. Clark, by the bold step he has 

 taken of proposing to expunge from the published list of the 

 British MoUusca, twenty-one species without having seen the 

 animals of scarcely one of them, tacitly admits that a species 

 may be determined by conchological characters; and therefore 

 by such, I am ready to submit my two discoveries to the judge- 

 ment of conchologists. Odostomia truncatula is generally a long, 

 slender, attenuated and very irregularly formed shell, having from 

 six to eight volutions; the two or three lower ones very unpro- 

 portionally long compared \vi\h. their width and with the upper 

 ones ; and from their extreme obliquity, the half-grown specimens 

 have much the contour of Rissoa vitrea. The volutions are 

 much flattened in the centre of each, then abruptly shelving off 

 to the sutural line, and each one seeming to be sunk into that 

 immediately below it, giving the shell a turreted appearance. 

 Three or four of the volutions are generally adorned with very 

 fine striae, visible under a common lens ; often as many as twelve 

 or fourteen lines upon the body whorl and extending quite up to 

 the suture. The aperture is extremely long and narrow, the 

 outer lip running up to a sharp angle, which gives a great length 

 and obliquity to the peristome. The inner lip, just between the 

 umbilical region and the extreme base of the aperture, is often con- 

 siderably reflected even in young specimens. All these specialties 

 are very distinct from the characters of Odostomia cylindrica, 

 which is a short compact shell, of four or five volutions, which 

 are much rounded, more especially the body whorl ; while that 

 of the Odostomia truncatula is always narrow and flattened : the 

 only striae upon Odostomia cylindrica are confined to the centre of 

 the body whorl, where there are generally four, (never more, 

 but often only two or three visible), thread-like lines, very far 

 apart ; rather a peculiar character in this species. The aperture 

 is much rounded and the body whorl rather large in proportion 

 to the rest of the shell. This species has, I believe, never been 

 taken by the dredge, although well kno^sTi for more than forty 

 years ; it belongs exclusively to the littoral zone ; is always found 



81* 



