24 VEST ACE A ATLANTIC A. 



Genus 8. HELIX, Linne. 



(§ Vallonia, Risso.) 



Helix pulchella. 



Helix pulchella, Midi, Verm. Hist. ii. 30 (1774) 



„ „ Lowe, Ga/mhr. Phil. 8. Trans, iv. 45 



(1831) 

 „ „ Alb., Mai. Mad. 45. t. 12. f. 1-4 (1854) 



„ „ Morel, Hist. Nat. des A cor. 175 (1860) 



„ „ Drouet, Faun. Acor. 157 (1861) 



„ „ Mouss., Faun. Mai. des Can. 57 (1872) 



Habitat ins. omnes (sec. Drouet) ; sub lapidibus vulgaris. 



This common little European Helix — which has established 

 itself in the Madeiras and Canaries, and even at St. Helena, 

 and which is cited also from the Cape of Good Hope — is found, 

 according to Drouet, on every island of the Azorean Group. 

 Morelet indeed does not assert this totidem verbis, but merely 

 states that it occurs in the archipelago ; and one can hardly 

 therefore resist the enquiry as to whether the expression 

 ' Habite tout l'archipel' is used (here as well as elsewhere) 

 merely indefinitely, in order to imply the wide distribution of 

 the species, and its probable occurrence, throughout the cluster, 

 or whether it is to be accepted in its true and literal meaning, 

 and as a positive guarantee that it has been carefully ascer- 

 tained to exist on each of the nine islands which constitute 

 the entire Group. If the latter fact is intended to be conveyed, 

 MM. Morelet and Drouet deserve unbounded praise for the 

 perfectly incredible proportion of their species which they have 

 succeeded in detecting on all the detachments of an archipelago 

 which is so widely scattered ; but if, on the other hand, the 

 term is employed without absolute precision, I cannot too 

 strongly express my belief that loose statements of this kind, 

 which are not strictly in accordance with facts, are neither 

 more nor less than disreputable, — calculated as they are to place 

 on permanent record what is simply and de facto untrue. 



(§ Leptaxis, Lowe.) 



Helix vetusta. 



Helix vetusta, Morel, et Dr., Journ. de Conch, vi. 152 

 (1857) 

 „ „ Morel., Hist. Nat. des Acor. 176, t. 5. f. 12 



(1860) 

 „ „ Drouet, Faun. Acor. 158 (1861) 



Habitat Sta. Maria, semifossilis ; haetenus recens haud 

 detecta. 



