110 UNIVALVES. 



common species about Box Hill, Ashtead, and 

 that neighbourhood. They were introduced into 

 Buckinghamshire as a medicine for a lady who 

 was in a consumption. They are commonly 

 used as food by the Roman Catholics in many 

 parts of Europe during Lent, and are preserved 

 and fattened for that purpose in large reservoirs, 

 the floors of which are covered with herbs and 

 flowers. These mollusks were among the dain- 

 ties of the luxurious Romans, who had their 

 Cochlearia or nurseries for snails, where the ani- 

 mals were fed on bran and wine, till they increased 

 to such a size, that if we may credit Varro, a 

 shell has been known sufficiently large to contain 

 ten quarts of liquid. It is mentioned as a re- 

 markable fact relating to this shell, that when 

 the animal who forms it is diseased, the spire is 

 much elongated. 



HELIX Hortensis. 



GARDEN SNAIL. 



Specific Character. Shell subglobular, smooth, 

 diaphanous with fine transversely banded whorls ; 

 aperture semiorbicular, the outer lip slightly re- 

 flected, the colour of the shell and its bands ex- 

 ceedingly various ; greatest diameter less than 

 an inch. 



This is the most common species of snail. At 

 the approach of winter, it forms an operculum 

 of a coriaceous substance, composed of several 



