352 VENERID.E. 



circled with reddish-brown spots, the surface of the tubes 

 being frequently marked in the same way. Loven con- 

 siders it the V. liter ata of the ' Fauna Suecica/ but not 

 of the ' Systema Naturae/ Gmelin and Lamarck made 

 each three species out of the present. It is the V. ne- 

 bulosa of Solander and Pulteney, and Capsa deflorata of 

 Leach. 



|D I . bfl 2. T. VIRGI'NEUS *^ Linne. ) 



Venus virginea, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1136 (according to modern authors). 

 Tapes virginea, F. & H. i. p. 388, pi. xxv. f. 4, 6. 



BODY pale yellowish-white or cream-colour : mantle having 

 its edges dentate on the anterior side, sinuous in front, and 

 scalloped on the posterior side, with a few short yellow fila- 

 ments at each end: tubes united for three-fourths of their 

 length, and separate for the other fourth towards their ex- 

 tremities ; their colour is delicate pale lemon, tinged with red- 

 dish-brown at the bifurcation, and often tipped with purple ; 

 they are of the same size ; the incurrent tube has its orifice 

 truncate, and fringed with 14 pointed cirri, which are alter- 

 nately large and small, the former being marked at their bases 

 on each side with a patch of bistre, and the latter being white ; 

 the excurrent tube curls upwards as in other species, and, in 

 consequence of its outer edges being a little inflected, does not 

 appear truncate ; this tube has 16 short white cirri at the ori- 

 fice, which is encircled by a fine reddish-brown line ; the tubes 

 when extended do not measure more than half the breadth of 

 the shell : gills nearly circular, pale drab, hung very obliquely ; 

 the under pair are at least double the size of the upper, and 

 are strongly marked across by the vessels of circulation : ^a/ps 

 subtriangular, short, and distinctly striated : liver apparently 

 small and pale green : foot thick and fleshy, not much bent, but 

 flexible and capable of being attenuated to a fine point ; it has 

 no byssal groove. 



SHELL rhomboid-oblong, moderately convex, solid and 

 opaque, polished and rather glossy : sculpture, flattened ribs as 

 in the last species, but they are less regular and often wanting 

 on the umbonal area and consequently in young specimens ; 

 there are occasionally a few obscure longitudinal lines, and 



* Virgin. 



