420 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxix. 



erences to the real Martyn by the numbers cited for figures, which are invariably 

 larger than 160. 



The latest volume of Martini referred to is III, 1777, although nine volumes of the 

 Cabinet had appeared by 1786. 



Dryander, Bibl. Banksiaua, 11, p. 319, 1796; V, p. 347, 1800. 



The Universal Conchologist in english and french. Vol. I, pagg. 27, 

 tab. teneaj color. 40. London, 1784, fol. obi. 



Note. — Dryander took charge of the Banksian Library in 1782 in succession to 

 Solander. He is generally regarded as a very accurate person, though the above title 

 is far from impeccable. It is somewhat odd, considering the relations mentioned 

 between Banks and Martyn, that the library of the former should contain only the 

 first forty plates of the Universal Conchologist, and leads one to wondei- if Solander' s 

 loyalty to Linna?us and Martyn's rejection of the Linnean classification of shells had 

 anything to do with it. 



Maton and Haclett, Linn. Trans., 1804. 



Thomas Martin, Universal Conchologist, London, vol. 1, 1784; vol. 

 2, 1786, fol., with 160 most elegant plates. 



Note. ^It would appear from the above that Maton and Rackett- regarded as a 

 " volume," not the 40 plates so denominated in Martyn's own introduction, but the 

 80 plates which were bound actually into a volume, as in one I have seen in an 

 apparently contemporaneous binding. They are not alone in this view, and it would 

 follow that, if their citation be correct, plates 1-80 appeared in 1784 and 81-160 in 1786. 



Dillwyn^ Kec. Shells, vol. I, 1817, p. x. 



The Universal Conchologist by Thomas Martyn, London, vol. I, 

 1784, vol. II, 1786. 



Chenu^ Bibl. Conch, lere Ser. tome II, 1845. 



Reprint of the French text of Martyn's Introduction and preface, 

 reproduction of his figures on 56 plates, with a brief "avertissment" 

 by the editor, in which he states that the work was published in Lon- 

 don from 1769 to 1784, in four folio volumes. The rarity of this 

 beautiful work and the style of its execution, he says, have placed it 

 among the most remarkable books of the epoch, but its costliness and 

 rarity are such that it would be easy to mention all the libraries 

 which possess it; thus in Paris it is only found complete in that of 

 M. Benjamin Delessert (of which Chenu was then custodian); the two 

 first volumes alone in the pitblic libraries and those of some rich ama- 

 teurs. A second edition, in quarto, was issued in 1789. "Mr. Gray 

 (J. E.), director of the British Museum, has informed me (Chenu) that 

 a fifth volume of the Universal (conchologist exists, but this volume, 

 unfinished by Martyn, has not been published, and the figured species 

 are not even named, so that it forms merely a collection of plates of 

 no scientific interest." 



Note. — We shall show that Chenu's first date is erroneous. Whether his state- 

 ment that volumes 3 and 4 appeared by 1784 has any foundation in fact is doubt- 

 ful; it is at any rate erroneous. The fifth volume spoken of was doubtless a collection 

 of plates which had been prepared after the issue of volume 4, and were on hand 

 when the decision was made to abandon the publication. Chenu's work is useful, 

 notwithstanding a certain number of misprints, but it would have been still more so 



