49 GENUS BUCCINUM. 
they are raised and noduled. From these distinctions, some 
authors have sought to divide it into several species; but when 
we have before us a large number of specimens of different ages, 
it is impossible not to recognise the identity which exists among 
theme)” 
A series of forms, and the differences of the two extremes of 
age may have led to the error which we are noticing, and to 
classing the varieties of a single species as several species ; but 
an examination and study of the intermediate ages, by bringing 
to view their different relations, lead at once to the necessity of 
uniting them; so important is it to examine shells in all the 
modifications which age and locality can produce in their very 
forms, before settling their classification. Simple varieties of 
the shell we are describing, have caused it to be divided into 
four species ; we will now endeavor to point out the differences 
which separate them, or the resemblances which unite them, by 
comparing them successively to our type which we give in plate 
“12, fig. 41. By this examination we shall be convinced that 
the folds which have been considered as distinctive characters 
diminish or increase, by insensible degrees, in each of the 
varieties. 
The first, which we admit in our work as variety B, pl. 12, 
fig. 41, b. is described by Gmelin under the name of Buccinum 
affine ; it is the same as that called by Quoy and Gaimard Buc- 
cinum cinctum, Voyage de ? Astrolabe, pl. 30, fig. 5-6-7. It is 
ovate, smaller than our type, of the same color as the B. undo- 
sum. It is merely ornamented with transverse and rounded 
threads, and it is only upon some specimens that we begin to 
perceive slight longitudinal folds upon the whirls. The lip is 
thin, the crenulations within hardly apparent; but when the lip 
curves to form the margin, they become much more visible, and 
the denticulations of the edge begin also to be recognised. 
This shell inhabits the. Straits of Malacca (Martini), 
South Sea (Solander), the coasts of Madagascar (Humphreys), 
the Isle of Vanikoro, of Tonga-Tabou, and many other localities 
in the Pacific Ocean. 
The variety C, pl. 12, fig. 41, differs from the former by its 
more globular form, and by the disposition of its threads, which 
