DEFRANCIA. 373 



6. D. puRpu'REA*y. s Montagu) fl.fa. 



Murex purpureus, Mont. Test. Br. (i.) p. 260, t. 9. f. 3. Mangelia pur- 

 purea, F. & H. iii. p. 465, pi. cxiii. f. 3, 4. 



BODY whitish, with a tinge of purple, minutely and closely 

 speckled with flake-white : pallial tube cylindro-conical, rather 

 long : head conical, short : tentacles spike -shaped, very short 

 above the eye-stalks, and bluntly pointed : eyes placed about 

 one-third of the way down the tentacles, from which part the 

 tentacles increase considerably in thickness : foot squarish in 

 front, with angular corners (to each of which a ridge runs 

 from the neck or back of the head, forming an inverted V), 

 pointed behind. 



SHELL less fusiform than the last species, owing to the base 

 not being so much produced or elongated, rather solid, nearly 

 opaque, and of a somewhat dull hue : sculpture, numerous and 

 crowded, but not prominent, longitudinal and spiral ribs, which 

 produce by their mutual decussation a granular (not prickly) 

 appearance ; the interstices are very narrow, and do not form 

 any oblong spaces ; of the longitudinal ribs there are from 20 

 to 24 on the body-whorl, and 18 to 20 on the next ; they ex- 

 tend to the base, and nearly to the suture ; the spiral ribs are 

 narrower and thread-like, 24 to 28 on the body-whorl, and 

 about a dozen on the next whorl, besides a few slight inter- 

 mediate striae ; the third whorl and part of the second are 

 bluntly keeled, and all the top whorls are finely reticulated ; 

 the microscopic texture is closely but indistinctly frosted: colour 

 purplish brown, chocolate, or reddish-brown, sometimes varie- 

 gated with white, fawncolour, pale yellow, or occasionally 

 pure white, now and then encircled by a pale narrow zone 

 below the periphery ; top orange or pale yellow : spire long, 

 tapering, and somewhat turreted ; apex as in the allied species, 

 but more slender : whorls 12, convex and rounded ; the last 

 occupies rather more than half the shell : suture deep : mouth 

 narrowly pear-shaped, contracted above to form the fissural 

 sinus ; length two-fifths of the shell : canal rather short, wide, 

 and expanding towards the orifice; it bends a little to the 

 left ; notch broad and rounded, scarcely visible outside : outer 

 lip gently curved ; inside white and thickened, fluted by about 

 15 tooth-like ridges ; edge sharp, notched by the spiral ribs : 

 Jissure deep, rather narrow, and incurved ; its previous course 



* Purple. 



