42 Mr. R. T. Lowe on a new Madeiran Helix. 
doubtedly a good genus, though it is a mistake to cite the 
Lucernaria cyathiformis of Sars as representing it. 
I remain, Gentlemen, 
Very faithfully yours, 
Edinburgh, June 1860. Gro. J. ALLMAN. 
X.—Deseription of a new Helix; and Notice of the Occurrence 
of Planorbis glaber, Jeffr., in Madeira. By RK. T. Lowe, 
M.A. 
[With a Plate. ] 
Dourine an excursion in the north of Madeira, a few weeks past, 
I had the good fortune to discover the following fine and entirely 
new Heliz, living at an elevation of about 4000 feet, on a dry and 
partially wooded mountain-slope or bank, along the new Levada 
now constructing in the Ribéiro do Fayal. Its affinity is pri- 
marily, doubtless, with the rare Desertan fossil, H. coronula, 
Lowe; and next, though more remotely, with H. tiarella, Webb, 
and with the recent Porto-Santan H. coronata, Desh. Yet it 
exhibits also, both in size and certain peculiarities of form and 
sculpture, the nearest approach yet discovered amongst living 
Madeiran Helices to the strange and curious H. Delphinula, 
Lowe, known at present only as one of the most abundant 
Canical fossils of Madeira. 
The discovery of so fine a recent species ought to stimulate 
afresh the researches of naturalists in the higher sylvan regions 
of the island, considering how remarkable it is that so large and 
striking a shell as this, however rare and local it may be, should 
have hitherto escaped all observation. 
The main points of interest attaching to H. delphinuloides, 
independently of its great rarity and beauty, are—Ist, its sup- 
plying in some sort a link between the two remarkable Madeiran 
groups Craspedaria and Coronaria, in size agreeing better with the 
single known representative of the former, H. Delphinula, than 
with any previously described member of Coronaria; and 2ndly, 
its offering a living analogue, in the group Coronaria, to the 
fossil type, and indeed sole representative, of Craspedaria. The 
abundance, moreover, of H. Delphinula in a fossil state, and its 
apparent extinction as a living species, are curious facts when 
contrasted with the extreme rarity of its recent representative, 
H. delphinuloides, and the absolute non-occurrence of the latter 
as a fossil. But since the possibility of the one being a mere 
modification of the other is entirely inadmissible, the discovery 
of H. delphinuloides doubtless strengthens much the probability 
of the existence also in a living state of the true H. Delphinula 
itself in some of the many still unexplored sylvan nooks and 
FN Ee, Se eee en ee ae ee ey, 
“os 
