MELVILL: BRITISH PIONEERS IN CONCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 2i3 



ground, viz. : — Southern Californian coasts and the shores of 

 Mazatlan. The Galapagos Islands, however, have produced some 

 interestingterrestrial forms, which were named by Professor Forbes 

 Bulimus chewnitzoides, achafelliaus, fimbriafiis, and Succinea 

 cingulata. Many of his most valuable contributions to science 

 were given through the "Reports of the British Association." 



Lovell Reeve, the well-known publisher of Henrietta Street 

 Covent Garden, one of the most devoted Conchologists that our 

 country has produced, in the year 1841 published two large 

 quarto volumes entitled " Conchologia Systematica," the 300 

 coloured plates being by Sowerby. It was probably the success 

 of this work that led him to conceive the far more ambitious 

 project of delineating every known shell by a life-size figure, 

 each genus being separately monographed. This great work 

 began with the genus Conns in 1843, Mr. G. B. Sowerby being 

 responsible for the plates, while Reeve supplied the letter-press. 

 Whilst the fifteenth volume was in process of issue, Mr. Reeve, 

 who had long been in failing health, died (1866), leaving Mr. 

 Sowerby to complete the work. 



The Conchologia Iconica wall live, more on account of the 

 excellence of its plates than its letter-press, the former indeed 

 always excepting the two last volumes, which show traces of undue 

 haste, are in Mr. Sowerby's best style, and are not to be surpassed, 

 but Mr. Reeve was an accurate observer, and his descriptions of 

 the thousand or more new species he has given to the world are 

 all lucidly given in Latin and English, and the majority must stand 

 the severe light of more modern criticism. Although the late 

 Mr. G. W. Tryon has attempted to cast a slur upon Messrs. 

 Reeve, Adams and Sowerby's work in differentiation, he has not 

 succeeded very well, often falling himself into grave mistakes in 

 the endeavour. Mr. Tryon's monograph of the genus Mitra^iox 

 instance, is full of the most astounding theories and errors, and 

 the Rev. A. H. Cooke has, in the Journal of Conchology, recently 

 exposed his ignorance of the genus Purpura. Mr. Reeve was 

 an acute painstaking Conchologist, living in close communication 



