11 



CAN AM AN GROUP. 377 



nevertheless it is, on the average, a little smaller and more de- 

 pressed, its umbilicus is not quite so large, and its entire surface 

 (which is a trifle more shining, or subpellucid) is sparingly 

 clothed, particularly when the shells are young, with fine hairs 

 or cilise. It is usually, too, a little more brightly variegated 

 with pallid markings ; and there are more or less obsolete indi- 

 cations beneath (as in the H. lancer otten sis, W. et B.) of a few 

 indistinct spiral, or concentric, bands and line-like rings. 



Helix apicina. 



Helix apicina, Lam., Hist. vi. 102 (1822) 

 Xerophila apicina, Held, in Isis, 913 (1837) 

 Helix apicina, Morel., Moll, du Port. 63 (1845) 

 „ ^ „ Pfeif., Mon. Hel. i. 170 (1848) 



„ Morel, Hist. Nat. Acor. 174 (1860) 

 „ Drouet, Faun. Acor. 158 (1861) 

 „ Pfeiff., Mon. Hel. vii. 242 (1876) 



Habitat Teneriffam ; examplaria dua nuperrime communi- 

 cavit Revdus. R. B. Watson. 



Two examples of the H. apicina, Lam., — which occurs in 

 southern Europe, the Azores, and northern Africa, — have lately 

 been communicated by the Rev. R. B. Watson, as forming a 

 portion of the material which was collected in Teneriffe during 

 the expedition of H.M.S. ' Challenger ' ; and as Mr. Watson has 

 kindly permitted me to examine the whole of the species which 

 were found in that island, and which represent the most ordi- 

 nary and commonplace of the Canarian forms, there can be no 

 question whatsoever concerning the perfect accuracy of its 

 habitat. I possess the H. apicina from Marseilles, Tangier, 

 and Mazagan (in the last of which places it was found by Mr. 

 T. S. Leacock); and the Teneriffan individuals agree with them 

 precisely in every particular. 



At first sight the H. apicina might seem to have a little in 

 common with certain examples of the H. lancerottensis which 

 happen to be abnormally depressed ; nevertheless the spire is 

 i-till more flattened than in even such individuals as these, and 

 the ultimate volution is more suddenly enlarged, — giving the 

 shell somewhat the prima facie contour of the Madeiran H. 

 obtecta and latens, or of Lowe's //. Iras from Mogador. Added 

 to which, the substance is more solid, and the surface (which is 

 free from hairs) is not only more sharply striated but has an 

 appreciable broken-up, or tessellated, fascia immediately behind 

 the suture. Moreover the umbilicus is relatively a trifle larger. 



