276 Mr. L. Reeve on the Synonymy of 



elongately oblong, and the corona of scales is very conspicuously 

 and boldly developed. The painting consists of an elaborate 

 network of fine reddish or burnt-orange veins, crossed by two 

 rather distant bands of chestnut blotches. Swainson has figured 

 a small C. ducale in his 'Exotic Conchology^ with the name 

 Valuta diadema, Lamarck. 



13. Cymbium [Melo) Georgince, Gray, in Griffith's Cuvier's 

 Animal Kingdom, pi. 34; Conch. Icon. pis. 11-13. 



Melo mucronatus, Sowerby. 



Hab. Moreton Bay. Port Essington. 



Dr. Gray, whose politeness in giving shells the christian- 

 names of ladies is unrivalled, well distinguished this species in 

 1833; but in his monograph of Volutidce in the Museum Cata- 

 logue, published more than twenty years later, he remarked of 

 this and the preceding species, that they appear to be varieties 

 of C. diadema. " If we select certain specimens of each," says 

 Dr. Gray, " they appear very distinct ; but if a large number of 

 specimens of difi'erent ages, from various localities, are arranged 

 together, the differences gradually merge into each other, and it 

 is difficult, if not impossible, to separate them from one another." 

 Of the Lamarckian V. diadema and armata this may be said 

 truly enough, for they are one species ; but of C. ducale and 

 C. Georgina, I have found no difficulty in separating at a glance 

 the largest number of specimens that were probably ever brought 

 together. The painting of C. Georgince is seldom seen, except 

 in young specimens, beyond the pillar surface of the body-whorl. 

 It consists of irregularly conglomerated linear streaks of red- 

 brown, mingled with a partial network of veins of the same 

 colour ; and the shell has always a general foxy-red hue. The 

 spines are rather decumbent, and more or less blotched with 

 chestnut. In the young state this peculiarity of painting is 

 more conspicuous. 



14. Cymbium {Melo) diadema, Lamarck, Anim. sans Vert. vol. vi. 

 p. 375 ; Conch. Icon. pis. 14, 15. 



Valuta diadema, Lamarck. 

 armata, Lamarck. 



Hab. Eastern Seas, 



This is the most variable of all the Cymbia ; and the more 

 slender forms with longer scales have been separated, under the 

 name of armata, from the more square-built and stoutly ventri- 

 cose species with shorter scales. These variations, depend- 

 ing on the laws of correlation of growth, are not accompanied 

 by a separate system of specific characters, as in C. ducale and 

 C. Georgina. 



