CONOSPERMUM-CONUS. 



wound docs not at once close, but continues to bleed 

 for a time. The common species (Stomoxyt calcitrans) 

 is most abundant in autumn, hence the origin of the 

 common error that at this period of the year the do- 

 mestic fly is most tormenting. Some individuals of 

 this species (probably impregnated females) hide them- 

 selves during the winter, becoming torpid, sometimes 

 its many as a score may be found packed closely to- 

 gether in the stumps of old trees, especially in situa- 

 tions where a moisture has exuded which has probably 

 served for their food, or upon which they will feed 

 when they regain their activity. M. Desvoidy has 

 united the Stomoxydce with'the Muscidce, and has 

 formed the Stomoxys irritam into the genus Heema- 

 tobut. 



CONOSPERMUM (R. Brown). New Holland 

 ornamental ever-green shrubs, belonging to Tetrandria 

 monogynia, and to the natural order Proteaccae. 

 Generic character : calyx tubular, gaping ; upper 

 segment hollow at the base ; anthers three, side 

 one halved, the upper two lobed ; stigma free ; nut 

 inversely cone-shaped, crowned with rigid hairs. 

 These plants have narrow heath or yew-like leaves, 

 and therefore add variety to the green-house collec- 

 tion. 



CONOVULUS (Lamarck ; a Volute of Linnteus). 

 One of its species has also been classed, by Lamarck, 

 with the genus Tornatella ; both of them are now, 

 however, placed with the Pcdipes, in the second 

 family Auriculace<s,tirst order PulmobrancMata, second 

 class Paraccphalophora. The shell is thick, ovoid, 

 sub-involved, the spire very short, the last whorl 

 much larger than all the others united ; the aperture 

 long, oval, or linear, the edges not united, the external 

 one sharp and thin, internally dentated ; one or two 

 dccurrent plaits at the columella, one of which serves 

 to separate the two portions of the animal's foot. 

 The animal, according to Adanson, is known. Several 

 fossil species are mentioned by De France, which are 

 classed with the genus Tornntclla. 



CONULARIA. A fossil species of mollusc, of 

 which the Conn/aria Sowerlni is an example ; it is, 

 however, a badly defined genus and should not be 

 placed with the Orthocerata of the modern school, 

 except as being greatly similar in structure to many 

 of its species. 



CONUS (cone) (Linnaeus and various modern 

 authors). Shells of this extensive and elegant genus 

 are generally so well known to every collector, that 

 it were needless to say their name is derived from 

 the resemblance to a cone. The genus comprises 

 not only the most beautiful, but also the most numer- 

 ous of the class which comprehends the spiral uni- 

 valves. Among them are many of high price, even 

 at the present day, when the rarity of certain species 

 is less than it was a few years since, from the increased 

 researches made in this branch of natural history, and 

 from the competition in our sale-rooms becoming less 

 in proportion. Cones constitute a very natural and 

 easily distinguished association of molluscs, including 

 an almost endless number of species and varieties; 

 but few other shells can, by possibility, be confounded 

 with them. To a casual observer, some others, how- 

 ever, present a striking resemblance ; the cowry 

 (Ci/prcea), in a young state, has been mistaken for a 

 cone, though it is then very thin, and all cones are 

 thick and heavy, and one author, of little repute it is 

 true, has confounded a species of the genus Qliva with 

 the cones The most remarkable and distinguishing 



character of this genus is, the shell having the 

 whorls compressed and rolled over each other, the 

 outer one being visible, and the upper edges of thu 

 previous evolutions only seen with a suture or groove 

 between them. These spiral elevations form the 

 spire, which is sometimes nearly flat, convex, more or 

 less produced, and occasionally even slightly concave ; 

 the extremity of the whorls coronated, smooth, or 

 tuberculated. It results from the form of the shell, 

 and the spiral cavity (which contains the animal) 

 being compressed in its whole length, and the larger 

 part near the spire, that they may strictly be called turbi- 

 nated shells attenuated towards the base ; the aperture 

 is narrow, effuse at the base, never dentated or the 

 axis plaited, and the outer lip smooth and sharp ; it 

 does, however, sometimes present a slightly waved 

 appearance in certain species, particularly at the 

 anterior extremity, which may there be called plaited 

 obliquely. Lamarck has divided this genus into two 

 sections, the first including the coronated cones, the 

 second, those with a plain spire ; but this genus, like 

 other very numerous ones possessing but few varia- 

 tions of character, requires a more natural association 

 of its species, as a guide to which, the peculiar struc- 

 ture of the spiral whorls, in addition to the more or 

 less elongated form of the shells, might safely be 

 adopted by the naturalist. 



Lamarck and all subsequent writers have omitted 

 some particulars tending to exhibit, more strongly, the 

 peculiar characters of this elegant shell ; theapertureis 

 terminated, at the upper part, in a notch, more or less 

 distinct, admitting the protrusion of an organ of the 

 animal, and occasioned also by the suture or separation 

 of the external whorl from the spire ; beneath this appears 

 a slight callosity, running round the interior of the shell. 



The form of the shell is extremely various, some be- 

 ing rather thin, cylindrical, and oval, others short and 

 wide, some with a spire very much produced, while, 

 in others, it is nearly flat and truncated, either 

 mucronated, coronated, tuberculated, or with flattened 

 or convex whorls ; the exterior more or less covered 

 with minute granulations ; some are quite smooth, and 

 others transversely grooved or sulcated ; all the 

 species may be presumed to have an epidermis, 

 which, in some, is very thick and has a tufted appear- 

 ance. Adanson, whose veracity has never been 

 impugned, asserts, that these shells are closed by a 

 very small horny opercul urn sub-spiral, with a terminal 

 summit; but of some hundred specimensofconeswhich 

 have passed through our hands, no one ever has been 

 met with by us possessing an opercul um. The 

 animal constructing this shell is of a lengthened very 

 compressed form, rolled round like a riband wound 

 up on its own axis ; the mantle is extremely thin, not 

 projecting beyond a rather small foot, of a lengthened 

 oval form, larger in front, where it is bordered by a 

 transverse groove ; the head is very distinct, the 

 tentacula cylindrical, with the eyes situated near 

 their summits, which are setaceous ; the mouth is 

 placed at the bottom of a rather long labial trunk, the 

 tongue is rather short, although salient in the visceral 

 cavity, and bristled with two rows of long styliform 

 hooks. 



The following distribution of species has been 

 made by French naturalists, and it is tolerably 

 natural, though admitting of some reformation. The 

 first division consists of those cones which have the 

 form of the body regularly conical, with a projecting 

 spire, not coronated or tuberculated, as is the case 



