AZOREAN GROUP. 36 



Habitat ins. omnes (sec. Morelet et Drouet) ; praecipue in 

 umbrosis humidis, vel cultis inferioribus vel montosis, vulgaris. 



A rather commonplace little Helix which, according to 

 Morelet, and judging from his excellent figure, belongs to 

 much the same type as the H. plebeia, hispida, rufescens, 

 sericea, lurida, &c., though distinct from them all. It is a 

 reddish-brown shell, with a faint yellowish band more or less 

 traceable on the ultimate volution, extremely thin and fragile, 

 and even subdiaphanous. Its surface is densely crowded with 

 minute oblique striae, which are decussated by a few fine but 

 less regular spiral lines (more particularly evident about the 

 dorsal region and the base) ; and it is conspicuously studded 

 with short erect hairs, which have a tendency to arrange them- 

 selves in radiating transverse rows. The peristome is exces- 

 sively thin and fragile, and has the columellary margin a little 

 reflexed, as well as minutely and triangularly dilated at its in- 

 sertion so as very slightly to overlap the edge of the umbilicus 

 which is, itself, rather small. 



According to Morelet and Prouet, the H. horripila is found 

 on every island of the Group ; and one cannot but admire the 

 extreme diligence of those two naturalists, who obtained, in one 

 short visit, so overwhelming a proportion of their species on the 

 whole nine detachments of an archipelago which is so remotely 

 scattered as that of the Azores. 



( Cwacollina, Beck.) 



Helix barbula. 



Helix barbula, Charp., in litt. 



Rossm., Icon. vii. 11 (1838) 

 Morel., Moll, du Port. 57 (1845) 

 Pfeiff., Mon. Hel. i. 210 (1848) 

 Morel., Hist. Nat. des Acor. 170 (1860) 

 Drouet, Faun. Acor. 155 (1861) 

 Habitat ins. omnes (sec. Drouet) ; sub lapidibus, ad muros, 

 et cast., prsecipue in cultis, vulgatissima. 



The H. barbula, which is so common in Portugal, is, ac- 

 cording to Morelet, 4 extrement multiplied aux Azores ; ' and he 

 adds ' se trouve j usque dans les iles lointaines de Flores et 

 Corvo, ce qui fait presumer qu'elle est indigene de 1'archipel. 

 On la rencontre au pied des murs, dans les rues meme de 

 Horta et de Ponta Delgada.' Drouet, however, cuts the matter 

 shorter by saying < Habite tout 1'archipel ;' and we are therefore 

 bound to accept this statement, until otherwise explained, as a 

 positive guarantee that he has either found it or else ascer- 

 tained that it occurs in the whole nine islands of the Group. I 



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