104 CLASS III. GASTEROPODA. ORDER VI. PULMOBRANCHIATA. 
We refer the following three genera to this family : 
AURICULA. CHILINA. 
ScARABUS. 
AURICULA, Lamarck. 
Testa ovata, vel ovato-oblonga, epidermide fusca induta; columella aut 
dentata, aut valdé plicata ; apertura longitudinali, basi integerrima, 
marginibus subincrassatis, superné disjunctis, labro vel simplici vel 
reflexo ; operculo nullo. 
However palpable may be the many inaccuracies which the progress 
of science has discovered in the general classification of Linnzus, the 
labours of that great naturalist must ever be commended for the order 
and method that originated with his ‘ Systema Nature.’ Before his time 
it was thought for the most part sufficient to attach a specific name to 
each particular kind, without the necessity of establishing a form of 
classes, orders or genera; the type of this genus, for example, was long 
known to naturalists as the Auris-Mide, or Midas’ Ear. Linneus re- 
ferred the species in question to his genus Voluta, on account of the 
plaits on the columella; Miller, however, attaching a greater importance 
to the form and characters of the aperture, referred it to the genus Helix; 
whilst it was included by Bruguiére in his heterogeneous series of Bulimi. 
Lamarck appears to be the first to have felt the necessity of establish- 
ing the present genus: in noticing that the columella of this shell was 
strongly plaited like that of the Volute, he did not fail to mark what a 
difference must exist in the organization of an animal, whose shell is 
characterized by the constant appearance of a special opening or canal 
at the base of the aperture ; without taking their habits into considera- 
tion. Now the Auricule are all amphibious air-breathing mollusks, living 
either on the sea-shore, on the banks of lakes and rivers, or in fens and 
