490 TEST ACE A ATLANTIC A. 



beneath the microscope to crowd its surface) across its volutions, 

 and which, although sometimes scarcely traceable, are at others 

 quite costiform and conspicuous, will suffice to distinguish it 

 from everything else with which we are concerned in the Cape- 

 Verde archipelago. 



Dohrn mentions expressly that this little Patula is allied to 

 the ' H. servilis, Shuttl., from the Canaries,' i. e. to Lowe's H. 

 pusilla ; adding, however, that it ' differs from it in its superior 

 sculpture and its small umbilicus, as well as in its ultimate 

 volution not descending, and in its lacking the obtuse angle at 

 the peripherium ;' but I can only say that, after a most rigid 

 comparison of his examples with Madeiran and Canarian ones, 

 I can detect absolutely nothing about them to indicate a specific 

 difference ; though as the P. pusilla is eminently variable as 

 regards its sculpture, I can quite understand that chance speci- 

 mens from the Canaries might well have appeared to him to be 

 not quite similar to those from the Cape Verdes. 1 



G-enus 4. HELIX, Linne. 



( Cryptaxis, Lowe.) 



Helix primaeva. 



Helix primaeva, Morel., Journ. de Conch, xiii. 236 (1873) 

 Pfei/., Mon. Eel. vii. 486 (1876) 



Habitat Sal, semifossilis ; a DD. Bouvier et de Cessac lecta. 

 This Helix, which I have had no opportunity of inspecting, 



1 I may just notice the Helix Draparnaldi, Beck, which figures in More- 

 let's list of the Land- Shells of the Cape Verdes, but concerning whicli not a 

 single syllable of information is given to us, either as to the exact island in 

 which it was found, or by whom. So far as I understand the H. Draparnaldi, 

 it is probably identical with the previously described and common European 

 Helix (or Hyalina) lucida, Drap. ; and there is no evidence hitherto of that 

 species having been met with in any of these various archipelagos. If, there- 

 fore, Morelet has discovered it amongst the material of MM. Bouvier and de 

 Cessac, or elsewhere, he was bound to tell us so, and to give us the parti- 

 culars of its exact locality, at any rate if he expects so important an 

 addition to the general fauna to be acknowledged. If, however, by the 

 ' H. Draparnaldi, Beck,' he means (as I should rather suspect) the H. cellaria, 

 Mull., which has been observed in the whole of these Atlantic Groups except 

 the Cape Verdes, there is a greater probability of its insertion being correct. 

 But even in that case he would be bound to say not only by wliom it had 

 been detected, and where, but (still more) to be quite sure that his nomen- 

 clature is accurate ; for it is a matter of no slight importance whether the 

 species to which he alludes is the ordinary European H. cellaria, Mull., which 

 is so widely spread throughout these archipelagos, or the nearly allied 

 H. lucida, Drap., which has not as yet been recorded in any of them. The 

 mere entry of a name into a local catalogue, unaccompanied by the smallest 

 information concerning it, is more apt to create confusion than otherwise ; 

 and more particularly so when there is reason to feel uncertain (as in the 

 present instance) as to whether even the title itself has been accurately 

 employed. 



