LIMA. 87 



of Born, and the L. reticulata of Leach. The L. Los- 

 combea of the last-named author, from Torbay, is in all 

 probability the young of the present species ; but his 

 diagnosis is very obscure. Philippi considers Turton's 

 L. bullata to be the L. strigilata of Scacchi but not the 

 Ostrea strigilata of Brocchi. The latter is a common 

 miocene fossil, and constitutes the type of Bronn's 

 genus Lime a. 



5. L. hi'ans*, Gmelin. 



Ostrea hians, Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed.xiii. p. 3332. L. hians, F. & H. 

 ii. p. '20>8, pi. lii. f. 3-5, and (animal) pi. E, as L. tenera. 



Body of different shades of colour between pale crimson and 

 intense vermilion : mantle of an orange tint : tentacles very 

 numerous, arranged in rows as in the last species : foot also 

 similar. 



Shell rhomboidal, considerably twisted to the ventral or 

 anterior side, compressed, rather solid, of a dull aspect : sculp- 

 ture nearly the same as that of L. Loscombii : but the ribs are 

 stronger, and often become coarse and rough towards the 

 margins : colour snow-white in the young, but dirty-brown in 

 old specimens, which are frequently covered with fragments 

 of byssal hairs, as well as with zoophytes and Foraminifera : 

 margins thick, oblique, bluntly rounded in front, the ventral 

 or anterior edge compressed and nearly straight, and the pos- 

 terior edge truncate and sloping outwards at the same angle 

 with the lower margin of that side as in the last species ; the 

 valves when closed gape very widely on both sides : beaks 

 prominent and gibbous, not projecting much beyond the hinge : 

 ears triangular, strong, and unequal, that on the anterior side 

 being longer and wider than the other, which is sharp -pointed; 

 both are coarsely wrinkled in the line of growth : cartilage 

 and ligament large, horncolour : hinge-line formed like an arch, 

 and increasing with age in the degree of curvature ; its length 

 is not equal to one-third of the entire breadth of the shell : 

 hinge-plate thick, incurved in the middle to receive the carti- 

 lage : cartilage-area very large, causing the beaks to be widely 

 separated when the valves are closed ; triangular space on the 

 anterior side indistinct, but that on the other side is deeply 



* Gaping. 



