75 



diverging arched ribs, more or less densely furbelowed with erect 

 high-vaulted scales. 



The furbelowed Clams, one of which, T. gigas, from its being the largest 

 of all mollusks, is called the Giant Clam, are a tribe of sluggish animals 

 living in beds of many specimens together among the coral reefs of the 

 Indian and Pacific Seas. It is recorded that the animals are extremely 

 brilliant in colour, whilst the shells are mostly colourless and thickly in- 

 crusted with dirt, and that to look down upon a bed of them, through the 

 clear blue water, when the valves are open, is really a sight to see. M. Quoy 

 describes with much enthusiasm the beautiful iridescent glare of blue and 

 violet and yellow, variegated with fantastic markings that is presented by 

 these submarine parterres. None of the shells have any marking, but 

 some are elegantly toned with a hue of saffron or pink. All are charac- 

 terized by a broad opening at the lunule, through which passes a foot ca- 

 pable of spinning a powerful tendinous byssus. The species differ from 

 one another in form, but mostly in the character of the scales ; some are 

 furbelowed with distant high-vaulted scales, and some are furbelowed with 

 a profusion of small scales ; in the Giant Clam, Tridacna gigas, the scales 

 are mostly obsolete from its thickened and continuous growth.* 



1. elongata, Lam. 



2. gigas, Linn. 



3. mutica, Lam. 



Species. 



4. scapha, Meusch. 



5. scutrum, id. 



6. serrifera, Lam. 



7. squamosa, id. 



Figure. 



Tridacna squamosa.. Plate N. Shell, with the valves open to expose 

 the animal. The upper orifice is the mouth, with its labial palps. 

 The orifice, through which the foot and byssus passes to the gaping 

 lunule of the shell, is concealed from view. 



* The French conchologists call the shells of this species ' Benitiers,' from their having been 

 used at the doors of churches as vessels for holy water. Much has been said about the Benitiers 

 of St. Sulpice in Paris, presented by the Venetians to Francis I., but I doubt if they are so large 

 as a pair of Benitiers in the window of an oyster shop, the favourite resort of actors and literary 

 men, in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. Often when indulging in a luncheon of Ostrea edulis, 

 fresh-murdered, with the gills spread neatly round the nice plump visceral mass, a bonne douche 

 for an emperor, have I looked upon the giant clam which tills the entire background of the 

 oyster- vendor's window, and longed to get a w-aggon and horses to carry them off; but Mr. 

 Rule, like a true naturalist, will not be tempted to part with them. The windows of his little 

 back parlour are filled with Wardian cases of healthy growing ferns, and on the wall mny be seen 

 portraits of some of our literati, presented by the sitter. 



