PATELLA. 241 



the poor limpet must have spent much of its time, as 

 well as all its substance, in adding layer after layer to 

 provide a roomy lodging for its troublesome parasites. 

 In some specimens the crown is depressed, the rest of the 

 cone being considerably raised. The inside of old shells 

 is often garnished with irregular pearly excrescences. 

 My largest specimens were taken at Lulworth, and on 

 Uyea Island; they measure 2% inches by 2|. The va- 

 riety depressa is very pretty, and especially when the 

 interior is streaked with violet-brown rays on a porce- 

 lain ground. So is the variety picta. In Da Costa's 

 time such shells were called by the English f ' Auriculas," 

 and by the French " Soucis " or marigolds, from their 

 resemblance to those flowers. The spire of the very 

 young shell is slightly twisted on one side, with an in- 

 clination to the posterior or broader end ; it has one 

 whorl and a half. The tongue is rather longer than the 

 shell j and, according to Forbes and Hanley, it is armed 

 with 160 transverse bands of teeth, each band having 12 

 teeth, or 1920 in all. Mr. Spence Bate has examined 

 the lingual ribbon in the variety depressa. This is 

 broader and shorter than in the common kind, but offers 

 no other distinction than that the teeth are perhaps 

 somewhat larger. 



It is the P. vulgaris of Belon, Petiver, Da Costa, Landt, 

 and others. Gmelin divided it into a great many species, 

 chiefly from the descriptions of Schroter. The local 

 names are innumerable. De Montfort reckons no less 

 than fifty-two. I will cite a very few only " flither" 

 of the English, " flia " of the Faroese, "flie" of the 

 Normans, " ceil de bouc " of the French, and " lapa " 

 of the Portuguese. 



VOL. III. M 



