110 UNIVALVES. 



the most common species about Box Hill, 

 Ashtead, and that neighbourhood. They were 

 introduced into Buckinghamshire as a medicine 

 for a lady who was in a consumption. They are 

 commonly used as food by the Roman Catholics 

 in many parts of Europe during Lent, and are 

 preserved and fattened for that purpose in large 

 reservoirs, the floors of which are covered with 

 herbs and flowers. These mollusks were among 

 the dainties of the luxurious Romans, who had 

 their Cochlearia or nurseries for snails, where the 

 animals were fed on bran and wine, till they in- 

 creased to such a size, that if we may credit 

 Varro, a shell has been known sufficiently large 

 to contain ten quarts of liquid. It is mentioned as 

 a remarkable fact relating to this shell, that 

 when the animal is in a diseased state, the spire 

 becomes much elongated. 



HELIX Hortensis. 



GARDEN SNAIL. 



Specific Character. Shell subglobular, smooth, 

 diaphanous with fine transversely banded whorls; 

 aperture roundish, semiorbicular, the outer lip 

 slightly reflected ; the colour of the shell and 

 the bands are exceedingly various ; greatest 

 diameter less than an inch. 



This is the most common species of snail. At 

 the approach of winter, it forms an operculum 

 of a coriaceous substance, composed of several 



