326 VENERlDjB. 



Genus I. VENUS *, Linne. PL VI. f. 5. 



BODY suborbicular or oval : mantle having its edges fringed 

 or cirrous : tubes more or less united. 



SHELL triangular, solid, fluted or ribbed concentrically, 

 sometimes cancellated, or else nearly smooth: lunule heart- 

 shaped or lanceolate : teeth, three or four strong and divergent 

 cardinals, besides the typical lateral in each valve. 



The name of this genus conjures up an idea of beauty, 

 which is fully realized by contemplating the graceful 

 form of the shells comprised in it. Whatever the case 

 may be with regard to Diatoms and other low types of 

 vegetable life, there is no angularity in the outline of 

 animal organisms. Everyone of these objects is "teres 

 atque rotundus," and offers a striking contrast to the 

 stiff and often inelegant works of man. I do not share 

 Herrick's avowal, 



" I must confess mine eye and heart 

 Dote less on Nature than on art." 



To enhance the charm of a rounded contour in the 

 shells of Mollusca, each part is repeated in the Bra- 

 chiopoda and Conchifera by valves resembling the cover 

 of a clasped book, in many of the Pteropoda and most 

 of the Gasteropoda by a succession of similarly shaped 

 whorls arranged spirally on a common axis, and in the 

 Cephalopoda by a series of cells or imbricated plates. 

 The same principle of repetition is followed in the 

 organization of the body of each mollusk : it has a 

 double mantle, two wing-like expansions, one or two 

 pairs of tentacles, or a circle of feet armed with rows of 

 suckers. An harmonious symmetry pervades the whole. 

 Although I do not think there are sufficient grounds, 

 as regards the British Mollusca, for any dismember- 



* The Goddess of Love. 



