732 ON SOME KNOWN SPECIES OF SHELLS. [June 18, 



tatingly pronounce it to be a bleached example of C. virgo ; for in 

 form and sculpture it is absolutely identical with certain specimens 

 of that species, and differs only in colour. This variation may be 

 due to bleaching; or it may possibly be an albino form. The 

 purple base, which is so constant a character iu this species, is trace- 

 able in a faint degree in Reeve's shell. He does not refer to this in 

 his description ; yet in the figure it has been represented by the 

 artist. 



The species figured by Weinkauff in Kuster's Conchilien-Cabinet, 

 pi. 32. figs. 1 and 2, apparently is the same as or very closely allied 

 to that depicted by Reeve. 



In order to come to some decision in the matter, I commuicated 

 with Dr. Brot, of Geneva, asking him for information respecting 

 Lamarck's species, as his types in Delessert's collection have recently 

 been obtained by the museum of that city. Unfortunately, it ap- 

 pears that Lamarck's Cones are not marked as in other genera, but 

 placed on tablets bearing the designation L. According to a cata- 

 logue of Delessert's collection, Dr. Brot informes me that there 

 ought to be five specimens of C. pastinaca ; but only four are now 

 to be found ; the fifth (possibly that figured by Kiener) had disap- 

 peared before the collection reached Geneva. Of the remaining 

 four, three existed in Lamarck's cabinet. None of these, how- 

 ever, has the dimensions indicated by that author. Two are con- 

 sidered by Dr. Brot small specimens of Conus quercinus ; for they 

 are ornamented (indistinctly, however) with the fine thread-like 

 brown lines which are characteristic of that species. The third shell 

 he considers a diminutive specimen of that figured by Kiener ; for it 

 so resembles the figure, that at first he thought that it had been en- 

 larged for Kiener's plate. Finally, the fourth specimen of C. pasti- 

 naca, which is not from Lamarck's collection, resembles the form 

 figured by Reeve under this name. Thus it appears that, under the 

 name of C. pastinaca, the Delessert collection contains three species, 

 viz. the C. pastinaca of Kiener (young), that of Reeve, also young, 

 and, lastly, two small specimens of Conus quercinus. The question 

 which now has to be settled is this: — Is the specimen in Delessert's 

 collection, which is similar to Reeve's figure, really the same species 

 as that delineated ? if not, may it not be the true pastinaca 1 



In the British Museum the shell which accords most closely with 

 the Lamarckian diagnosis is a worn specimen of C. tabidus, Reeve, 

 figured in the ' Conchologia Iconica ' under the name of C. hepaticus, 

 Kiener (Conch. Icon. Suppl. pi. viii. fig. 2/8). 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLVI. 



Figs. 1, 2. Tellina wroblewskgi, p. 727. 



3. Trochus ( Thalotia) yokohamensis, p. 727. 



4. Melaniaformosensis, p. 728. 



5. formosemis, var., p. 728. 



6. dicksoni, p. 728. 



7. obliquigranosa, p. 729. 



8. obliquigranosa, var., p. 729. 



9. tubcrculata, p. 729. 



