248 On the Economical Uses of some species pf Tesiacea. 



XII. Mya PicTORUMj (Linn.) — Painters' Gape?', 



Is common to many of the rivers of Great Britain and the north of 

 Europe. It was formerly made use of for holding the colors em- 

 ployed by artists, whence its trivial name ; but for the last thirty 

 or forty years it has, we believe, been entirely neglected for this pur- 

 pose, and is now only to be met with in collections. 



XII. Turbo littoreus, (Linn.) — Whelk. 



This shell is common to most of the shores of Great Britain, but 

 is perhaps most plentiful on the limestone rocks, on the northeastern 

 coast of England, where it lives in common with the periwinkle, be- 

 low high water mark : it is gathered by children and old men, and 

 retailed, boiled, in small measures, in the streets of the seaport towns. 

 They are never very abundant, and may be considered rather as an 

 humble luxury than an article of food. 



The periwinkle, {Buccinum Lapillus, Linn.) though so nearly 

 resembling it, and more common, is not, that we are* aware of, ever 

 used in the present day, though it formerly was, as Holinshed tells 

 us : " We have in like maner no small store of great whelkes and 

 perewinkles, and each of them brought farre into the land from the 

 sea coaste in their severall seasons."* / 



XIII. Pecten maximum, (Penn.) — Great Scallop. 



This shell is found on most of the coasts of Great Britain and Ire- 

 land, particularly on those of Portland and Purbeck in Dorsetshire, 

 and near Yarmouth in Norfolk. The fish is eaten, and in some parts 

 it is pickled and barreled, and in this state is the object of a small 

 commerce. Holinshed mentions them as being extensively used in 

 Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth's reigns, and they are still cooked 

 in various ways, and considered a luxury. The fish was formerly 

 supposed to be medicinal, and recommended by the doctors as "de- 

 tersive, aperitive and carminative," and the shell was also adminis- 

 tered in the same manner as that of the oyster. At a still earlier 

 period it was worn by pilgrims, and- thence found its way into armo- 



* Holinshed's Chronicles, Lond. Ed. 1807, Vol. i. p. 378. 



