FAMILY 11. COLUMELLATA. 247 
his ‘Systéme des Animaux sans vertébres,’ for the purpose of distin- 
guishing a small cylindrical bulla-shaped fossil shell, having a close- 
set series of three plaits developed in an oblique direction at the very base 
of the columella, whilst the spire is depressed in such a manner as to be 
almost buried within the axis of the whorls. He entitled it the Volvaria 
bulloides, and was unacquainted with any other species of like character. 
In his latest work, ‘ Histoire des Animaux sans vertébres,’ however, he 
admitted one or two small recent species of Marginella into this genus 
Volvaria, and they have tended somewhat to confuse the majority of con- 
chological writers. Kiener, in his ‘ Iconography of Recent Shells,’ very 
naturally denounces the genus in question as unnecessary ; and the re- 
moval of Lamarck’s recent Volvarie to a place amongst his Marginelle, 
under the title of “Les Marginelles volvairiformes,”’ may be estimated as 
a mark of good discretion, 
Sowerby seems to have long ago detected the error which had been 
promulgated by Lamarck, for he relates in his ‘ Genera,’ that after making 
a comparative examination of the little recent shells marked ‘‘ Volvaria” 
by the learned professor in the Paris Museum, he ‘finds them much 
more nearly related to Marginella than to Volvaria.” 
The shell of Volvaria (known only in a fossil state*) may be described 
as being of a rather oblong-cylindrical form, slightly sinuated at the base, 
and transversely striated on the outside ; the aperture is very narrow, and 
equals the entire length of the shell; the columella is straight, and obliquely 
plaited at the base, and the outer lip is denticulated. 
> 
Examples. 
Pl. CCLXXVI. Fig. 1. (fossil). 
Votvaria BuLLowES, Lamarck, Syst. des Anim. sans vert., p. 93. De 
Montford, Conchyliologie Systématique, vol. il. p. 411. Sowerby, 
Genera of Shells, No. 5. 
* As we profess to include only such genera of shells in this arrangement as exist in a living 
or recent state, this single exception needs apology. We introduce the present genus in our 
anxiety to prevent the possibility of again confounding the true Volvarie with the ‘‘ Marginelles 
volvairiformes.” 
2x2 
