86 ' WEST AMERICAN SHELLS 
decisa, Conr., the Clipped Semele. The first name 
is that of the mythical mother of Bacchus, while 
the second refers to the short posterior end, which 
looks as if it had been cut off with a pair of scis- 
sors. The shell is nearly round, rather heavy, the 
ligament internal and lodged in an oblique pit, 
and the pallial sinus is high and oval. The out- 
side of the shell is coarsely wrinkled, brownish in 
color. The interior, where the beauty resides, is 
finely polished, looking like bright porcelain, and is 
more or less tinged with purple, particularly 
around the edges. Grown specimens are two inches 
or more in diameter. 
Semele rupium, Sby., the Rock Semele, is smal- 
ler, nearly circular, white, with a pink hinge-area. 
I have found pretty specimens as far north as 
Monterey. 
Sémele pulchra, Sby., the Beautiful Semele, has 
a small, thin, oval shell, with crowded concentric 
sculpture and radiating lines at the sides. This is 
a southern species, but the variety montereyt, Dall, 
is found farther north, as its name indicates. It 
is less than an inch in length, oval, thin, ventricose, 
the beaks quite posterior to the middle of the 
shell; pallial sinus very large, being rounded, and 
expanded interiorly. 
Sémele californica, Ads., the California Semele, 
is a southern species, very rare, the shell one inch 
long. It is the same as the yellow S. flavescens, 
Gould. 
