370 MOLLUSCA. 



form of the columella^ furnish the grounds of its division into 

 genera, which may be variously grouped(l). 



CoNus, Lin. (2) 



So called from the conical shape of the shell; the spire, either per- 

 fectly flat, or but slightly salient, forms the base of the cone, the 

 apex being at the opposite extremity; the aperture is narrow, recti- 

 linear, or nearly so, extending from one end to the other without 

 enlargement or fold, either on its edge or on the columella. The 

 thinness of the animal is proportioned to the narrowness of the 

 aperture through whicji it issues; its tentacula and proboscis are 

 highly protractile; the eyes are placed on the outer side of the 

 former, and near the point; the operculum, situated obliquely on 

 the hind part of the foot, is too narrow and short to close the whole 

 of the aperture. 



The shells of this genus, being usually ornamented with the most 

 beautiful colours, are very common in cabinets. The seas of Europe 

 produce very few(3). 



They are distinguished by the flatness or slight projection of the 

 spire; by the whorls being tuberculated or not; by its being more 

 salient and even jj^inted, and furnished, or not, with tubercles. 



There are some in which the spire is sufficiently salient to give 

 them a cylindrical appearance, in which case it may be either smooth 

 or tuberculated(4). 



The appellation of crowned spire is applied to that which is stud- 

 ded with tubercles. 



CyprjEA, Lin. 

 The spire projecting but little, and the aperture narrow and extend- 



(1) They are the Paracephalophura Binica Siphonohranchiafa of Bla-iny'ille. 



(2) M. de Blalnville unites the Coni, Cijprex, Ovulx, Terebella, and the Volutoe, 

 in a family which he calls Axgtostoma. 



In placing here the genera with a straight aperture, we must not be understood 

 as meaning to approximate them to the preceding family, but only to present 

 tiiem first, as possessing the most striking characters of all those which are fur- 

 nished with a siplion. 



(3) For the species of tliis beautiful genus see the article and the plates of 

 Brugieres in the Encycl. Method., where they are extremel}'^ well described and 

 figured, and the enumeration still more complete than in the Ann. du Mus., XV, by 

 M. de Lamarck. 



(4) Species with a crowned spire: Con. cedonulU, L., a shell much sought for, 

 and of which there are many varieties, Encycl. Method., pi. 316, f 1; Con. mar- 

 moreus, L., Enc, pi. 317, f. 5; — Con. arenaius, Brug., Encycl , pi. 320, f. 6, &c. 



Species with a simple spire: Can. litteratus, L., Encyc, pi. 323, f. 1; — Con. 

 tessellatus, Brug., Enc, pi. 326, f. 7; — Con. virgo, Brug. Enc. pi. 326, f. 5, &c. 



