JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 389 



NOTE ON THE GENUS BALE A. 



By EDGAR A. SMITH. 



(Read before the Conchological Society, March 14th, i£ 



In the 'Journal of Conchology' (vol. vi., pp. 421-422), Mr. 

 A. E. Craven and myself made some remarks on the vivipar- 

 ous nature of the genus Balea, believing at the time that it was 

 with one exception the first record of this characteristic. I 

 find, however, that such is not the case, and, therefore, in 

 justice to a previous discovery I beg to call the attention of the 

 Society to a paper by C. Hartman published in 1867.* 



On page 385 of this treatise he mentions the fact that 

 certain specimens of Balea perversa were capable of producing 

 young before arriving at maturity, and also that he had observed 

 within such immature examples, as well as in adult specimens, 

 young shells consisting of two whorls. It therefore appears that 

 Hartman was the first to record the viviparous nature of this 

 genus. 



Mr. T. Rogers! appears to have been cognisant of this 

 fact a short time after the publication of Hartman's paper, but 

 he did not then place it on record. 



Both Jeffreys in 1869 J and Rimmer§ in 1880 quote Mr. 

 Rich's observation upon this subject. 



I must plead as an excuse for having overlooked Hart- 

 man's discovery when writing my previous note upon this 

 subject, the fact of having trusted to the most recent manuals 

 on Conchology, such as Fischer's and Tryon's, to contain, if it 

 were known, such an important fact as the viviparous character 

 of this genus. 



" Ofversigt Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akad. Forhandl. i856 (published 1867) pp. 381 — 394. 



t Journ. Conch., vol. vii., p. 40. 



t Brit. Conch., vol. v., p. 161. 



§ Land and Freshwater Shells British Isles, p. 169. 



