64 



GENUS BUCC1NUM. 



lowish or fawn-color, sometimes without spots, but oftener 

 with transverse brown bands which surround the suture, the 

 middle and the base of the lowest whirl. The spire is conical, 

 composed of eight or nine whirls slightly inflated, shagreened 

 upon its entire surface by very apparent granulations, disposed 

 in series, and forming a large number of folds or longitudinal 

 ridges, with transverse striae ; the folds, which are parallel to 

 the length of the shell, are more numerous than those which 

 cross it. Aperture ovate, round, brownish or whitish. Lip 

 straight, thick, ornamented internally with small denticulations. 

 Columella arcuated, covered by the left lip, which is furnished 

 with guttules at its base. 



Length 10 lines. Width 5 lines. 



Inhabits the Mediterranean, the rocks of the Island of 

 Teneriffe, the Canaries and the Azores ; the coasts of New 

 Holland, Van Diemen's Land, and of the South Sea. 



This species, which is well characterized by its granular folds, 

 presents some varieties, both in the color of the cavity of the 

 shell, and in that of its bands. Upon some the rows of tuber- 

 cles are equal, and then its whole surface is shagreened. In 

 others the longitudinal folds are more prominent, more distant, 

 and the tubercles less apparent ; the general color of these does 

 not resemble that of the first : it is brown, and whitish bands 

 take the place of the deeper bands of the others. The whirls 

 are also more prominent in those specimens which are found in 

 the South Sea. 



The young of this species, like the other Buccina, have the 

 lip thin, and the columella without a callosity. 



All these differences have caused, improperly, a division of 

 this BUCCINUM into several species, and even into several genera. 

 Risso, in his work upon the productions of Southern Europe, 

 has formed his genera NES^EA and LECHESIS out of young spe- 

 cimens of the BUCCTNUM fasciatum ; and his MITRELLA marmi- 

 nea, also, is nothing more than a young specimen of this last 

 species. 



