OF CONCHOLOGY. 189 



LOVELL REEVE. 



1 regret to have to announce to my readers the decease of 

 this very zealous and distinguished Conchologist. He died 

 in London in the Fall of 1865. 



Lovell Reeve was the author of numerous conchological 

 works, some of them possessing the highest merit. "We learn 

 from the dedication of his volume on "British Land and Fresh 

 Water Mollusks," that about 1831 he commenced the study of 

 shells, encouraged by the advice and assistance of Dr. J. E. 

 Gray. Ten years afterwards he published, through Messrs. 

 Longmans & Co., of London, his " Conchologica Systematica," 

 a splendid work, containing, in two volumes, over 300 colored 

 plates. The expense attending this publication was so great 

 that, to use his own words, "the only chance left to me of 

 pursuing the subject was to turn printer and publisher my- 

 self. With a lithographic press, a staff of print-colorers, a 

 stock of types and a printing-press, the means of production 

 became comparatively easy. During the. twenty-two years 

 elapsed since, I have worked unremittingly on species, con- 

 sidering them more with regard to the phenomena of distribu- 

 tion than of classification. My 'Conchologia Iconica ' has 

 reached its fourteenth volume and eighteen hundredth plate." 

 "Conchologia Iconica," the largest and most expensive as 

 well as the most useful work ever published on the subject, 

 now embraces monographs of most of the genera. The pub- 

 lication price for the parts issued to this date exceeds one 

 hundred and twenty-five pounds sterling. 



The plates are generally excellent, but the descriptions are 

 mostly very poor, and without the former would be unrelia- 

 ble. The following details of this publication may not prove 

 uninteresting; they are extracted from a recent advertisement 

 of the work : — 



" There is contained in the British Museum, and in the 

 museum of a British naturalist, Mr. Hugh Cuming, a collec- 

 tion of shells quite unrivalled in number of species, variety, 



