82 KELLIADJE. 



rlorly, the front being so pale as, in some specimens, al- 

 most to be devoid of colouring mutter ; the beaks are dark 

 purple. The valves are moderately convex, and rounded 

 at both ends, the termination of the posterior side, — which 

 is much produced, — more obtusely and broadly so ; the ex- 

 tremity of the anterior side, — which is both narrow and 

 small, at most occupying one-fourth of the length of the 

 shell, and a very much smaller proportion of its area, — sim- 

 ply and regularly so. The ventral margin is subarcuated, 

 and both dorsal lines are decidedly convex, the front one 

 declines strongly, the hinder one scarcely slopes at all. 

 The iimbones appear oblique, and when viewed in front 

 are decidedly prominent, they being raised on that side con- 

 siderably above the dorsal line. The beaks themselves are 

 blunt, and there is no denned lunule in front of them. The 

 internal colouring resembles the external, the margin is 

 plain, and the pallia! impression, as far as can be ascer- 

 tained, is simple and not sinuated. The cardinal edge is 

 very narrow, only jutting out just at the shorter side, to 

 which portion of it the dentition is confined. The extreme 

 minuteness of the teeth almost baffles one's eyesight, even 

 when aided by the most powerful lens, and from the lesser 

 size of our British examples, the dentition does not appear 

 so clearly developed as in the northern exotic ones.* 



We are unable to perceive any lateral teeth, although 

 there is u very slight elevation of the binge-margin at the 



* Loven's description of the hinge stands thus: — "Cardo valvae dextrae fossa 

 lunulari parum profunda, dente lunulari subtiigono, valido, fossa cardinal] an- 

 gusta, profundi, subtrigona, dente cardinal] fere sub medio ombone sito, lunulari 

 pauUum minore, rotundato ; valvse sinisti-.i- dente lunulari minuto, antrorsum 

 obliquo, fossa lunulari magna, trigond, dente cardinali valido, fossa cardinal] 

 , satis profundi; dentes laterales parum prominuli, longitudinales : im- 

 pressio muscularis antica duplex, superior minuta, inferior ovalis, verticalis, 



posterior ovalis, super] marginata ; Lmpressio palliaris vix discernenda integra 



videtur."- Tndea> Moll. Soand. p. 48. 



