CANARIAN GROUP. 397 



decidedly mistaken in concluding that it is identical with the 

 H. pumilio, Chemn. (though it is quite possible that the 

 example in the collection of Mr. Cuming which was examined by 

 Pfeiffer may have been referable to that species), which is found in 

 the sandy district around Mogador on the opposite coast of Mo- 

 rocco ; for the H ipumilio differs in many important particulars 

 from the H.cyclodon, — its spire being very much more elongated, 

 conical, and acute, with the nodules and inequalities of its 

 entire surface (including the medial keel) much more pro- 

 minently developed, and with only a very faint appearance of a 

 darker zone beneath ; added to which, it is thinner in sub- 

 stance, and less white and porcelain-like, and the interior of 

 its aperture is not darkened as in these immediately allied 

 forms. 



Two original examples of the H. cyclodon which are in the 

 d'Orbignyan collection at the British Museum, have the spire a 

 good deal elevated but nevertheless obtusely conical, or some- 

 what dome-shaped ; the whorls are rather plane (their upper, 

 or medial, keel being obsolete), but coarsely nodose just above 

 the suture, — where they appear consequently to have a circle of 

 blunt teeth, or nodules, rather downwardly (more than out- 

 wardly) directed, though scarcely overlapping the suture. Its 

 volutions are about 6^- in number ; in substance it is solid ; and 

 its surface, which is of a dingy or cinerous white, has a darker 

 band (not very conspicuous) at a short distance from the keel 

 on the underside of the shell. 



Helix Despreauxii. 



Helix Despreauxii, d'Orb., in W. et B. Hist. 65. t. 3. f. 21- 



23 (1839) 

 „ „ Pfeif., Mon. Hel. i. 179 (1848) 



„ „ Mouss., Faun. Mai. des Can. 49 (1872) 



„ „ Pfeiff., Mon. Hel. vii. 250 (1876) 



Habitat Canariam Grandem ; in regione ' El Charco ' dicta, 

 ultra Maspalomas, sub lapidibus in aridis apricis congregans. 

 Necnon etiam semifossilis, et in statu normali et sub. ' var. /3. 

 immodicaj invenitur. 



The H. Despreauxii, which is one of the most beautiful of 

 the Canarian Land-shells, was taken abundantly by Mr. Lowe 

 and myself in the extreme south of Grand Canary, — namely in 

 the arid district of El Charco, beyond the sandy wastes of 

 Maspalomas ; and we also met with it in what I believe to be a 

 truly subfossil condition, along with the H. pulverulenta and 

 lenticida, in the same spot. Mousson describes a subfossil 

 state of the species, obtained by Fritsch in Grand Canary, 



