322 CYPRINID.E. 



and the latter name has been adopted by Messrs. H. 

 and A. Adams, in their * Genera of Recent Shells/ under 

 the impression that it is different from Schumacher's 

 genus. It resembles Venus in many respects; but in 

 that genus the tubes are long, and the pallial scar on 

 the posterior side of the shell exhibits therefore a deep 

 fold or sinus. The typical species quoted by Schu- 

 macher is the Venus script a of Linne. It is somewhat 

 remarkable that our British shell (Circe minima), wjiich 

 Ulysses of Salis Marschlins mentions in his ' Travels ' as 

 being found on the Neapolitan coast, was called by him 

 V. script a. The name Circe has been used by Mertens 

 for a genus of Acalephse ; but the gap is so wide between 

 the Coslenterata and the Mollusca, that there is little or 

 no risk of confusion in consequence of the same name 

 being applied to forms of animal life so diametrically 

 opposite, although it is unquestionably better in pro- 

 posing new genera to avoid the possibility of such a 

 mistake. 



The habits of Circe are generally cleaner than those 

 of Astarte, the present genus apparently preferring nul- 

 lipore and shelly sand to a muddy ground. 



V CIRCE MI'NIMA *,i Montagu.) N *- 



Venus minima, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 121, t.3. f. 3. C. minima, F.&H. i. 

 p. 446, pi. xxvi. f. 4, 5, 6, 8, and (animal) pi. M. f. 3. 



BODY greyish- white, gelatinous: mantle slightly speckled 

 with brown : tubes of unequal size ; marginal cirri numerous, 

 short and cylindrical, covered with specks of a brown-red or 

 purplish colour: foot white, extensile, and pointed. 



SHELL nearly circular or obtusely triangular, usually de- 

 pressed except towards the beaks, rather solid, opaque, and 

 glossy: sculpture, numerous flat, broad, laminar concentric 



* Smallest. 



