250 TEST AVE A ATLAXTICA. 



callosity towards the angle of the outer lip which is always 

 faintly traceable in the smaller (or typical) aspect of that 

 species, and which is more conspicuously developed in the 

 larger one (or '/?. tuberculata''). 



In a subfossil condition the L. triticea is more abundant 

 than the oryza, though perhaps nowhere exactly common. In 

 the calcai'eous deposits at the Zimbral d'Areia it was met with 

 in tolerable abundance by Mr. Lowe and myself, during our 

 encampment there in the spring of 1855. 



I called attention under the L. oryza to the fact that 

 this common Porto-Santan Lovea is unquestionably the species 

 (as is proved to a demonstration by an original type which 

 is now in the British Museum) which Webb described as Ga- 

 narian under the name of ' Achatina ParolinianaJ — from 

 examples which he had himself collected, in company with 

 Mr. Lowe, on Pico Branco, in 1 828 ! Considering that he was 

 engaged so shortly afterwards in the compilation of his Ca- 

 narian * Synopsis,' it is simply disgraceful that an error so 

 gross, as regards habitat, could possibly have been committed ; 

 but those who, like Mr. Lowe, were personally acquainted 

 with Webb, were well aware of his extreme inaccuracy — not 

 merely on the question of localities, but also in the unneces- 

 sary mixing up of his various material ; and it was quite in 

 accordance, therefore, with this particular idiosyncrasy that he 

 should have pressed into his service (apparently to augment his 

 very meagre Canarian list) not only Madeiran forms, like the 

 present and preceding Loveas and such distinctive Helices as 

 the H. tainiata and tiarella, but others from even the Cape 

 Verdes ! In the instance now under consideration, however, he 

 fell into the additional mistake of not merely citing the species 

 as Canarian and giving no less than three separate islands as its 

 habitat (which all subsequent experience has shown to be false), 

 but also of mixing up with it a totally distinct form — which I 

 have already shown can pertain to nothing else than the equally 

 Porto-Santan L. oryzct, and which was subsequently eliminated 

 by Shuttleworth (in 1852) as the ' Achatina Tandoniana." 1 As 

 for d'Orbigny's share in all this unnecessary confusion, he unfor- 

 tunately made matters still worse by figuring a shell as his 

 ' Bulimus Parolinianus ' which could not by any possibility 

 be made to quadrate either with his own diagnosis or that of Mr. 

 Webb ! — and which consequently has to be ignored altogether 

 as being not only valueless but even deceptive. 



