472 Mr. F. P. Marrat on proposed new Species of Oliva. 
usque in marginem peristomatis producta; perist. pallido, mar- 
gine subincrassato, undique expanso. 
Long. 63 lin., diam. (anfract. penult.) 17 lin. 
Hab. Mososeki. 
A very pretty slender species, with several transverse im- 
pressed lines on the whorls. 
LV.— Observations on some proposed new Species of Oliva. 
By F. P. Marrat. . 
In the May Number of the ‘Annals,’ p. 344, Mr. Ponton, o 
Clifton, has taken exception to the whole of my proposed new 
species of the genus Oliva. It is, I think, a grave offence to 
occupy the pages of the ‘Annals’ with conclusions hastily 
adopted ; and I therefore beg permission to clear myself of the 
implied charge of having done so. 
The collection from which the materials of my paper were 
taken has been the work of several years: it contains of each 
of the more variable species from forty to one hundred or more 
specimens, and includes, with the exception of a very few (per- 
haps five or six), every species and every named variety that 
I have been able to find figured or described in the works of 
Lamarck, Sowerby, Chenu, Gray, and Reeve. In such a 
series, numbering some thousands of specimens, it might 
reasonably be expected that undescribed forms would occur as 
much deserving to be named as many of the forms identified ° 
by the above-named authorities. My supposed new forms 
have been selected with much care and reserve; and all pre- 
tensions to be able to make positive assertions on the extent or 
limit of particular species I freely resign to others. © 
‘Mr. Ponton states that colour altogether fails as a specific 
character in this genus. It is not surprising that an inspection 
of such species as O. ispidula, Linn., O. trisans, Lam., O. 
maura, Lam., and O. ventricosa, Soland., should produce an 
impression of this kind; but nowhere amongst the Gastero- 
poda are the indications afforded by colour of more value than 
in the genus Oliva. Even slight differences of shade may 
often afford a clue leading to the recognition of affinities after- 
wards abundantly substantiated by more permanent characters. 
I find in Reeve’s monograph, after the description of O, 
volvarioides, the following remark :—‘“‘'The uniform chestnut 
colouring appears to be peculiar to the species in this instance.”’ 
At the same time Mr. Reeve forgets to tell us that Duclos has 
figured a nearly white variety on the same plate; and also that 
there is a variety of O. lepida, Duclos, of a uniform chestnut- 
