216 WEST AMERICAN SHELLS STEARNS. 



aspects in sculptnro, and outline, analogous to the various facies 

 exhibited by the sanie species on the Pacific side. Professor Yerrill 

 makes Conrad's name a synonym, and gives Say's granulata i^riority, 

 and regards the form, which Morse named novanglice, "as a mere 

 variation* of this common and variable species," etc. Goukl says 

 '■'■vestita is an elongated middle-aged variety;" and further, in com- 

 parison, G. tridentata &ay, differs from borealis in the hinge, the latter 

 having "two teeth in the right valve, while that shell {tridentata) has 

 but one." 



The form familiarly known by Conrad's name is common in the 

 northern part of the two great oceans that bound the continent, and, 

 with its varieties, may be j-egarded as circumpolar. 



Venericardia ventricosa G1(L 

 Plate XVI, Figs. 5,6. 



The figures given herewith were made from Dr. Gould's type, now in 

 the National Museum (No. 3373), which is also figured and described 

 (July, 1850) in the "Exploring Expedition" volumes. It was detected 

 in Puget Sound. Dr. Carpenter, in discussing the Expedition shells in 

 his Supplementary lieport to the British association (Smithsonian mis- 

 cellaneous collections No. 252, reprint, vide page 17, as indexed), says: 

 "[Appears to be a local variety of the ancient Miocene species, Veneri- 

 cardia borealis -\- G. occidentalis Conr. + G. suhtenta Conr. (fossil) proba- 

 bly.]" 



Conrad described his G. occidentalis from a fossil example collected at 

 Santa Barbara, by Dr. Newberry, in the Proceedings of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, December, 1856, without a figure. 

 The latter is given only an exterior view, however, in Volume vi of the 

 Pacific railroad reports, but minus the description. The figure in the 

 last-named volume, so far as it goes, may be applied to Gould's species, 

 but not without doubt, as a knowledge of the hinge characters is abso- 

 lutely necessary in the forms of this group to make determination possi- 

 ble. Conrad's description in the Philadelphia Proceedings is so meager 

 and general as to be of no value whatever, and is really without any 

 title or claim to consideration for this reason. In his description he 



says that it is allied to "0 , of the San Pedro recent formation," 



etc., which is about as valueless a reference for the purposes of com- 

 parison as can well be imagined. 



Upon looking up the suhtenta of Conrad, we find it among the Astoria 

 (Oregon) fossils described in Volume x of the " Exploring Expedition," 

 App. 1, page 726, 1§40, Carpenter refers to it thus on page 679 of 

 his supplementary report (p. 165 of reprint): ^' Gardita subtenta, Conr., 

 r= Venericardia borealis Conr.," bat in this as with occidentalis, the de- 

 scription furnishes no light of a definite character. The dimensions as 



*Verrill's Second Catalogue of MoUusca, etc., Trans. Conn. Acad., 1884, p. 258. 



