MADEIRAN GROUP. 197 



subrotundata, postice constricta, peristomate relevato, soluto, 

 continuo, expanso, acuto. — Diam. maj. 4 ; alt. 2\ lln. 



Helix coronula (pars), Paiva [nee Lowe], Mon. Moll. Mad. 



63(1863). 



Habitat Desertam Grandem ; ad rupes inter lichenes, ver- 

 sus borealem insula?, a cl. J. M. Moniz reperta. Species ele- 

 gantissima, distincta, et in honorern arnici M. Grabham, M.D., 

 in ins. Maderse longe lateque Celebris, ob gratias rnihi oblatas, 

 citata. 



This' new and very interesting exponent of the Coronaria- 

 section is due to the researches of Senhor J. M. Moniz, who 

 detected many examples of it (amongst lichen growing upon 

 the rocks) towards the northern end of the Deserta Grande ; 

 and it was wrongly cited by the Baron Paiva as identical with 

 the subfossil H. coronula, Lowe, of the Southern Deserta (or 

 Bugio). So long indeed as the other members of this curious 

 assemblage are to be regarded as specifically distinct from each 

 other (and they have, all, an abundance of characters by which 

 they may easily be recognized), it would be the height of 

 inconsistency to single out any one of them as a local phasis or 

 variety, whilst acknowledging the claims of the rest to be 

 treated as species ; and, in point of fact, if the H. Grabhami is 

 to be looked upon as a modification of some cognate form, 

 there is quite as much reason for assigning it to the H tiarella 

 of Madeira proper as there is to the South-Desertan H. coro- 

 nula, — for, both in outline and sculpture, it is as nearly as 

 possible midway between the two. I am satisfied therefore 

 that they must, all of them, be either accepted as species, or 

 else as insular modifications of a single plastic type ; and I 

 imagine that there are few monographers, if indeed any, who 

 would be prepared to endorse the latter somewhat wild (and, as 

 it seems to me, utterly untenable) hypothesis. 



By the Baron Paiva a vast amount of unnecessary confusion 

 has been created by the rash manner in which he has mixed up 

 the features and habitats of these immediately-allied Helices ; 

 for not only has he registered the one which we are now dis- 

 cussing as coincident with the (apparently extinct) H. coronula 

 of the Southern Deserta, but he seems also to have recorded 

 originally the species from the south-east of Madeira proper 

 which he subsequently described under the title of H. Moni- 

 ziana as a small variety of the coronula (from which however 

 it is totally distinct). But, bad as it is, this unfortunately is 

 not all ; for, having treated it as such in his original manu- 

 script, he nevertheless omitted to strike it out as a variety of 

 the coronula after that he had made up his mind that it was a 



