104 



place of the usual nodule or tubercle. This tube^ it will be observed, is 

 not the analogue of a spine ; the spines which adorn the varices, so conspi- 

 cuously developed in the Murex tenuispina, and others, being always 

 open on one side, are no other than extreme modifications of scales or fronds, 

 but the tube of Typhis, is always closed — ^the wall of it is entire — and it 

 seems destined for some other purpose than that of ornament. It is a per- 

 fectly unique structure ; in no other turbinated genus is the least analogy 

 to be found, nor can I trace the gradation which M. Deshayes notices to 

 exist between the tube of the Typhis and the spine of the Murex. 



The genus Typhis was founded on a fossil species [Murex tetrapterus, 

 Bronn. ; 31. Jistulosus, Brocc. ; 31. imngens, Band.) subsequently found 

 living in the Mediterranean, described together with four other recent 

 species by Mr. Broderip in 1832 *, of which two were collected by Mr. 

 Cuming at Salaugo, West Columbia and the Bay of Caraccas, and one by 

 Capt. Sir Edward Belcher at Cape Blanco, West A.frica. Three species 

 were then added to the genus, collected by the same illustrious traveller 

 during the voyage of H.M.S. Sulphur, in localities very remote from each 

 other ; one was found in from seven to eighteen fathoms water in the Gulf 

 of Nicoya and Bay of Guayaquil, the second was dredged on the I'Agulhas 

 Bank, Cape of Good Hope, at a depth of upwards of fifty fathoms, and the 

 third, the smallest of the series, was found among gravel and coral, in 

 eighteen fathoms water at the straits of Macassar, Indian Archipelago. 



Species. 



1. arcuatus, Hinds. 4. Cumingii, Brod. 7. pinnatus, Brod. 



2. Belcheri, Brod. 5, Sowerbii, Brod. 8. quadratus, Hinds. 



3. coronatus, Brod. 6. nitens. Hinds. 



Figure. 



Typhis Sowekbii. Plate 12. Fig. 54. — Shell showing the spout-like 

 tubes issuing from between the varices. — From Mr. Cvming's collection. 



* " De Montfort, after referriug to Murex pungejis. Bander, as the type of this genus, adds 

 'La coquille qui nous sert de type pour retablissenient de ce genre n'est encore bien connue qu'a 

 I'etat fossile ; quoique Bruguiere disc tres positivement que son analogue marin existoit a Londres 

 dans le cabinet du Docteur Hunter, fait que malbeureusement nous ne pouvons poiat verifier, 

 mais qui cependant nous devons adopter d'apres las profondes connoissances et la perspicacite qui 

 distinguerent si eminemment ce conchyliologue fi-ancois'. In the Bictionnaire des Sciences 

 Naturelles the statement of Bruguiere is noticed ; but M. Blainville observes, that he was not 

 fortunate enough to find the shell. I have examined the Hunteriau Collection in London, with 

 the assistance of Mr. Clift and Prof. Owen, with no better success. It may, perhaps, have been 

 in the cabinet of Dr. William Hunter, now at Glasgow ; but on consulting Captain Laskey's 

 , General Account of the Hunterian Museum ' there, I find no mention of the shell ". — W. J. B. 



