222 Mr. Broderip's Description of Bulinus Labeo. 



Art. XXV. Description of a new Land- shell from South 

 America, together with an additional Note on Argonauta. 

 By W. J. Broderip, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., Sec. G.S. 



* Bulinus Labeo. 

 B. testa ovato-producta, fusco-castanea, apicem versus rubra fusco varia ; 

 anfractibiis sex, ventricosis, ultimo fasciis 2 nigris, hac media, ilia 

 suturali, penultimo fasciis 2 nigris, suturalibus ; columella dente obtuso 



* The substitution of the letter " n," instead of "m," in this word, will not, 

 it is hoped, be considered an innovation. It is never too late to correct an 

 error, and I will endeavour to shew that there is one in the word " Bulimus." 



We constantly hear, among conchologists, the question, " What is the mean- 

 " ing of Bulimus ?" The author of the article intituled " Lamarck's Genera of 

 " Shells," thus derives the word "/SsXijUOf, insatiable hunger. What title this 

 " genus has to so strange a name, we know not."* It may not, then, be unac- 

 ceptable to give a plain statement of the origin of the word. Swainson ob- 

 serves that " the genus Bulimus was long ago formed by Scopoli, out of the 

 " heterogeneous mixture of shells thrown together in the Linnean genus He- 

 " lix."f Let us now turn to Scopoli's account of the source whence he derived 

 the name. " Proprium," says Scopoli, " itaque ex his constituo et duce cele- 

 " berrimo Adansonio Buli»jos voco, ut eo facilius adgnoscantur. Solam testam, 

 " nee animal inhabitans vidi, quod diversum esse a Limace affirmat Adanso- 

 " nius." — Deliciae,. &c. p. 67. Now Adanson has no siich genus as Buliwsus, but 

 he has such a genus as Bulinus. At Plate 1, fig, G. 2, in his Natural History 

 of Senegal, will be found " Le Bulin. Bulinus," but the letters " n" and " u" 

 are so confusedly engraven, that, at first sight, the word looks like Bulimus. 

 In the text (page 5.) the word is printed Buliwus very plainly ; but neither 

 Scopoli nor any of his successors appear to have noticed it. Till the time of 

 Lamarck, who confined the genus (still calling it BuHtous, after Scopoli and 

 Bruguiere) to the land-shells with a reflected lip, which now range under it, 

 many land and fresh-water shells, which have not a reflected lip, such as Acha- 

 tinae, Melaniae, Physae, Limnseae, and Succineae, were also congregated under the 

 name of BuUtous. The Bulinus of Adanson was a fresh-water shell, apparently 

 a Physa or Limnaea. 



* Journal of Science, &c. vol. xv, p. 240, n. 



t Zool. lUust. vol. i. Bulimus melastomus,. pi. 4, 



