254 CLASS III. GASTEROPODA. ORDER VII. PECTINIBRANCHIATA. 
and it was not until the habits and organization of their animals were 
considered that the impropriety of this arrangement became manifest. 
Bruguiére and Lamarck were the principal agents in effecting the neces- 
sary reform, and the genus Voluta, after having been dismembered as 
above noted, was handed to us by the last of those writers in a manner 
which left little to be desired. Broderip, however, one of the most 
cautious operators in modern conchology, and who has long made a 
particular study of these mollusks, distinguished that peculiar and very 
characteristic group, vulgarly called ‘“‘the Melons” after the manner 
of De Montford ; only with this difference, Broderip has instituted two 
genera (in which we readily concur with him), Cymba and Melo, whereas 
De Montford included them under one, Cymbium. The Volutz have all 
very solid, well-developed shells ; and many of them being of great rarity, 
they are eagerly sought after by collectors. 
The shell of Voluta may be described as being ovate, or oblong, and 
emarginated at the base, the spire being short, and generally papillary at 
the apex ; the whorls are either smooth, or ribbed, and they are some- 
times coronated ; the aperture is oblong ; the columella is thickened and 
obliquely plaited, the lowest plaits being the largest ; and the lip, which 
is solid in most species, is but slightly rolled back. 
Examples. 
Pl. CCLXXXI. 
VoLUTA PAPILLARIS, Swainson, Zoological Illustrations. Sowerby, Ge- 
nera of Shells, No. 29. 
Voluta Soverbii, Kiener. 
Pl]. CCLXXXII. Fig. 1. 
Votutra cymBioLa, Chemnitz, vol. x. p. 141. pl. 148. f. 1385 and 1386. 
Sowerby, Tankerville Catalogue, pl. 4. fig. 1. Wood, Index Testa- 
ceologicus, pl. 21. f. 177. 
Voluta flammula, Wood (Ind. Test. Supp. pl. 3. fig. 5.). 
Voluta coronata, Kiener: 
