venus. 337 



minute attached seed pearls. This shell, which I have 

 had figured as a representative of the genus, when " fresh 

 from the sea/' but not, like its mythological prototype, 

 " conscious of her beauty," is indeed a lovely thing, 



" Composed with Nature's finest care 

 And in her fondest love." 



The elegance of its shape, the imbricated arrangement 

 of its sculpture, and the variety and brilliance of its 

 painting are unsurpassed in any other British bivalve. 

 Like many a wild flower, however, it is too common to 

 be thought much of. 



There can be little doubt that this was the V. Paphia 

 of Linne, who says of it, in the twelfth edition of the 

 c Systema Naturae/ " Habitat in O. Lusitanico" ; but 

 that name is now applied to a West- Indian shell. The 

 misnomer originated with Gmelin ; Pulteney and Mon- 

 tagu in vain protested against it. Brocchi called it V. 

 dysera, having mistaken it for a tropical species so named 

 by Linne. The present species is the V. Brongniarti of 

 Payraudeau ; Risso described it as V. biradiata, and by 

 other names ; and apparently the V. Duminyi, V. Bus- 

 schaerdi, and V. Philippic of Requien are also varieties 

 of our shell. 



5. V. Casina*, Linne. 

 V. Casina, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1130; F. & H. i. p. 405, pi. xxiv. f. 1. 5, 6. 



Body thick and white (Forbes and Hanley). 



Shell shaped like V. fasciata, but not so triangular ; it is 

 broader in front, nearly equally solid, and glossy : sculpture, 

 concentric imbricated ribs, which in some specimens are broad 

 and flattened, and in others sharp and foliaceous — now and 

 then slightly fimbriated, with very fine impressed parallel lines 

 in the interstices of the ribs — in other respects resembling 

 that of the last-mentioned species ; the whole surface is also 



* A kind of Nymph ; or possibly as a fussil from Monte Casino. 



Q 



