330 veneridjE. 



formis of J. Sowerby, and (according to Morch) the Cy- 

 therea albida of Bolten. 



2. V. lixcta*, Pulteney. 



V. lincta, Pult. in Hutch. Dors. p. 34. Artemis Uncta, F. & H. i. p. 431. 

 pi. xxviii. f. .3, 6. 



Body suborbicular, greyish -white : mantle having its edges 

 thickened and closely fringed with short tentacular cirri : tubes 

 pale yellow, capable of an extraordinary degree of extension, 

 viz. to nearly three times the length of the shell ; they are 

 united except at the openings, where they are speckled with 

 flake-white and faintly streaked lengthwise with brown ; 

 orifices (as in V. ovata) encircled by a ring of purplish-brown 

 and fringed with cirri : foot large, broad, and wedge-shaped. 



Shell roundish, with a triangular outline, convex, solid, 

 opaque, of a silky lustre : sculpture, very numerous, and flat- 

 tened but fine, concentric laminae, imbricated as in V. exoleta, 

 and becoming coarser and more erect at the sides ; the surface 

 is also covered with the microscopical lines observable in that 

 species : colour milk-white, tinged with pale yellow or light 

 brown towards the beaks, which are often of a pink hue : epi- 

 dermis very slight, yellowish-white, disappearing in the adult : 

 margins representing in front and at the sides an arc of three- 

 tilths of a circle ; that of the anterior side on the upper part 

 is somewhat excavated by the lunule and bluntly angulated ; 

 the posterior margin is less rounded, and impressed by an in- 

 distinct fold or flexure, which extends from the beak along 

 that side ; the dorsal margin is long and slopes obliquely, or 

 is more or less curved to the point of the posterior angle : 

 beaks rather prominent and obliquely recurved : lunule as in 

 V. exoleta, but colourless : corselet rather broad and shallow : 

 ligament long, horncolour, deeply sunk within the corselet : 

 hinge-line rounded or obtusely angled: hinge-plate thick, 

 broad, and flexuous : teeth the same as those of V. exoleta, 

 except that in the right valve the smallest tooth on the an- 

 terior side is more laminar and oblique, and the left valve has 

 two similar teeth in the same position to receive the opposite 

 one : inside dull chalky- white, all but the scars, which are 

 polished and prismatic ; margin thickened and bevelled : scars 

 large and well denned. L. 1-3. B. 1*3. 



* Licked with the tongue, or polished. 



