CYMBIUM. 
Puate III. 
Species 2. (Fig. a, 6, Mus. Brit.) 
CyMBIUM REGIUM. Cymb. testa subquadrato-ovatd, obeso- 
ventricosd, cinnamomeo-fuscd, albo conspicué grandi- 
maculatd, maculis irregularibus, interdum undatis et 
in fasciis dispositis, anfractibus superné subdepresse 
canaliculatis, ad angulum obtusis, coronatis, squamis 
breviusculis, columella triplicatda. 
THE RoYaL Cympium. Shell somewhat squarely ovate, 
stoutly ventricose, cinnamon-brown, conspicuously 
largely blotched with white, spots irregular, some- 
times waved and disposed in bands, whorls rather 
depressly channelled round the upper part, obtuse at 
the angle, coronated, scales rather short, columella 
three-plaited. 
Voluta regia, Schubert and Wagner, Conch. Cab. vol. xii. 
p- 13. pl. 218. f. 3038, 3039. 
Cymbium Hthiopicum, var., Gray. 
Hab. Kastern Seas. 
In the fine collection of Cyméia in the British Museum, 
which includes the Broderipian collection, may be readily 
separated a series of very characteristic specimens, mixed 
with specimens of C. dithiopicum, which appear to me to 
be distinct; and I have no hesitation in assigning them 
to the Voluta regia of Schubert and Wagner, described and | 
figured in their Supplement to the Conchylien Cabinet. 
Broderip gave the name of regius to the C. Broderipii de- 
scribed by Gray in Griffith’s Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom, 
thinking probably that Schubert and Wagner’s figure re-_ 
presented that species, but no light has been thrown upon 
it by subsequent monographers of the genus. Dr. Gray 
gives a copious and tolerably accurate list of synonyms in | 
his monograph of Volutide in the Museum Catalogue, in- 
cluding even unpublished names, which had better have 
remained unpublished, but no mention is made of the 
published species of Schubert and Wagner. It may be 
argued that the Y. regia of those authors is described as 
being four-plaited, whereas the species under consideration 
is three-plaited, but it will be seen by their figure, that 
they have regarded, like many others, as a plait, what is 
merely a thickened margin of the columellar growth. We 
may notice, in passing, another error in Dr. Gray’s synony- 
my of the genus. In the same plate of Schubert and 
Wagner’s Supplement, in which the figures of C. reginm 
occur, are two very characteristic figures of Lamarck’s 
VY. ducalis. his is not, as Dr. Gray supposes, a synonym 
of C. armatum (C. diadema var.), but the very characteristic 
Australian species, of which there is so extensive and beau- 
tiful a series in the British Museum, named by Broderip 
Melo umbilicatus. 
The figures both of C. ducaie and regiwm in the Supple- 
ment to the Conchylien Cabinet, are taken from young speci- 
mens, and I have thought it necessary to figure also young 
specimens to show the connection. At Pl. IV. 2 ¢ and 
2d, is figured the yougest specimen known to me of C. 
regium, and above it is figured the youngest specimen 
Known to me of C. Athiopicum. In no specimen of the 
first do I find any indication of the bands which are so 
conspicuous in the second in an early stage of growth, 
| but become more or less obsolete with age. 
In C. regium 
the interrupted white blotches become more conspicuous 
with age, and in all states and varieties of the species, 
the shell is of a squarer and more obtusely ventricose 
form than C. Zithiopicum. 
December, 1860. 
