BIVALVES. — DONAX* 41 



DO}i AX.— Wedge-shell. 



Scortum — Beaked. Muricata — Prickly. 



Pubescens — Spiny. * Ir us — Foliated. 



Rugosa — Wrinkled. Laevigata — Stnooth. 



*Trunculus — Yellow. Spinosa — Spinous. 



Striata — Striated. Incarnata — Flesh-colored. 



♦Denticulata — Toothed. Argentea — Silvery. 



Cuneata — Wedge. Bicolor — Party-colored. 



Faba — Bean-shaped. Radiata — Radiated. 



Scripta — Lettered. Straminea — Straw-colored. 

 Candida — White. 



VENUS.— Venus. 



Animal — a Tethys: Shell bivalve^ the frontal margin 

 fattened with incumbent lips; hinge ivith three teeeth, all 

 of them approximate^ the lateral ones diverrjent at the tip. 



It has already been observed, that this genus, with re- 

 gard to beauty, bears a decided pre-eminence over all the 

 other genera of Bivalves: and it is in all probability from 

 this very circumstance that it has obtained the title it 

 bears. It contains no less than one hundred and fifty 

 three species; and among these the variety in formation 

 and coloring is almost infinite : many of its species have the 

 frontal margins of their shells somewhat flattened, and 

 not unfrequently with the lips incumbent. The elong- 

 ated, compressed, angular, and orbicular forms, find 

 a place in this genus, as may be observed on inspect- 



