696 



CONCHIFERA. 



Fig. 345. 



Fig. 346. 



347. 



s 



(a, jig. 346) placed at 

 the anterior part of the 

 animal is deeply hid- 

 den between the foot 

 (b,jig. 346), and the 

 anterior retractor mus- 

 cle (c) in the Dimyaria, 

 and under a kind of 

 cowl formed by the 

 mantle in the Mono- 

 myaria. The mouth is 

 in the form of a trans- 

 verse slit, comprised 

 between two lips, ge- 

 nerally thin and nar- 

 row, as in almost all 

 the Dimyaria, or lo- 

 bated and digitated, 

 as in some of the 



Monomyaria, (, Jig. 



348). The lips ex- 

 tend on either side in the form of two flat- 

 tened smaller appendages, more or less elon- 

 gated, occasionally truncated, streaked or 



laminated on their internal surface, and to 



which the title of labial palps has by general 



consent been given, (d, fig. 346, c,jig. 348.) 

 The mouth in the Conchifera never presents 



any part that is hard. In the greater number 



of these animals it terminates without any 



intermediate passage in a stomach, the form 



of which is subject to but little variety. 



When there is an oesophagus (a, Jig. 347), it 



is variable both in point of length and capacity; 



it has nothing constant, relatively to the other 



distinctive characters of the groups established 



among the conchifera generally : thus it either 



occurs or is wanting indifferently among the 



individual members of the dimyarian and mo- The stomach (&, jig. 347, d,fig. 348) is a 



nomyarian families. 



membranous pouch, commonly pear-shaped, 



