MADEIRAN GROUP. 269 



nence largely developed, though in a vast number of others it 

 is more or less traceable in a rudimentary condition, thus 

 showing incontestably that the character cannot be made use 

 of for specific purposes. It is on this account that I have no 

 doubt whatsoever that Morelet's A. Vulcani, from the Azores 

 (and which he states is found also in the Canarian archipe- 

 lago), is but the modification of the A. cequalis in which this 

 labial thickening is distinctly expressed ; for he particularly 

 mentions that the only other feature in which it recedes from 

 the latter consists in the presence of impressed spiral striae 

 towards the base of the shell, a character which is so utterly 

 unimportant that I find it sometimes traceable and at others 

 wholly absent not only in normal individuals of the cequalis 

 but likewise in those in which the outer lip is armed with a 

 central denticle. Indeed the very excellent figure which he has 

 given, of the A. Vulcani, does of itself almost settle the ques- 

 tion. It is surprising to me that Mr. Lowe, in his original 

 description of the species should have failed to notice this ten- 

 dency for spiral striae ; but as I happen to be aware that many 

 of his earlier diagnoses were drawn out from a very limited 

 number of individuals, and also that in the majority of speci- 

 mens these more or less fragmentary impressed lines are totally 

 absent, the omission becomes at least explicable. 



Auricula Watsoni, n. sp. 



T. prsecedenti similis sed multo minor ac paulo minus ovata 

 (sc. magis fusiformis), sensim (saltern antice) subdistinctius 

 striatula, subopaca (rarius subnitida), et vix minus solida; 

 spira sensim exsertiore, acutiore, nucleolo plus minus eccen- 

 trico, anfractibus minus planatis foveolisque minutis in linea 

 spirali pone suturas (magis impressas) distinctius notatis ; aper- 

 tura postice minus anguste acuminata, plicis 3 albidis supe- 

 riore minuta tuberculiformi instructa ; peristomate recto, acuto, 

 margine dextro omnino simplici. Long. lin. 3 3J; diam. 

 maj. If 2. 



a. [status normalis] subventricosa, inflata, laete castaneo- 

 fusca et plus minus distincte purpureo-tincta. 



[/3. (insulis Salvages propria) scrobiculata. paulo angustior 

 aut minus inflata, ac plerumque sensim pallidior et vix (inter- 

 dum nullo modo) purpureo-tincta.] 



Auricula myosotis, Watson [nee Drap."], Journ. de Conch. 

 220(1876) 



Habitat Maderam ; in locis similibus ac prsecedens, sed 

 multo rarior. 



This is a much smaller species than the A. cequalis, as well 



