inhabiting the seas of Great Britain and Ireland. 331 



^ History of British Animals ' published in 1828, only one spe- 

 cies [Odostomia scalaris), which he referred to the Turbo indi- 

 stinctus of Montagu. 



Phihppi, in his excellent work on the Sicilian Mollusca (1836 

 and 1844), did more than any preceding author with respect to 

 some of the species, which he at first included in the genus 

 Melanittj but afterwards in Chemnitzia and Eulima. He does 

 not however seem to have been acquainted with any of the true 

 Odostomia except 0. conoidea, which he refeiTcd to the Auricula 

 conoidea of Ferussac and Recluz, who described the Odostomia 

 interstincta {Turbo interstindus, Mont.) under the name of Rissoa 

 Deshayesiana, Other continental conchologists do not appear to 

 have observed these shells. 



Of late years several additions to the British and Irish species 

 have been made by Messrs. MacGillivray, Thompson, Alder, 

 Hanley and Forbes, as well as by myself in the ' Annals of Na- 

 tural History,' Thorpe's ' British Marine Conchology,' and Mr. 

 Alder's 'Catalogue of the Mollusca of Northumberland and 

 Durham.' 



To Dr. Fleming is attributable the merit of proposing the ge- 

 nus Odostomia for these shells ; and although the name has been 

 objected to, as not being formed according to strictly classical 

 rules, the whole nomenclature of natural history requires so 

 much revision as to render any attempt to change established 

 names productive of greater inconvenience than would be occa- 

 sioned by retaining them. 



In the Supplement to the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica ' (pub- 

 lished in 1818) under the article " Conchology," the author, 

 Dr. Fleming, says, '^ Perhaps a rigorous examination of the Tur- 

 bines of British writers might justify the formation of one or two 

 new genera ; yet we shall content ourselves with noticing those 

 species into which we have formed the genus Odostomia, in which 

 the columella is furnished with a tooth. The Turbo interstincta, 

 unidentatttj plicata, Sandvicensis and insculpta of Montagu are 

 of this genus. They have no resemblance in their structure to 

 the Linnsean VolutcB, although they have been inconsiderately 

 associated with them by the authors of the ' Descriptive Cata- 

 logue.' The preceding genera are formed of marine shells : those 

 that follow live on the land." 



I have given a full extract from this article with respect to the 

 formation of the genus, because Mr. S. V. Wood, in his very able 

 and interesting treatise, lately published by the Palseontographical 

 Society, on the Univalves of the Crag Mollusca from the middle 

 and upper tertiaries of the East of England (p. 85), states that 

 the name as proposed by Dr. Fleming " appears to have been 

 intended for the reception of a number of land shells with a 



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