JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. ' 73 



Murex tenui spina is the typical representative (and which may be 

 purchased for half a dollar or less), early attracted the notice of the 

 boldest navigators in existence more than 3,000 years ago, viz., the 

 merchant princes of Tyre. These naturalists of a very early date 

 are credited with the discovery of the famous Tyrian purple dye, by 

 Plancus and Pliny, Roman Historians. The dying vats used by 

 this ancient people were actually rediscovered by Sir W. Wylde 

 half a century ago, when visiting the southern shores of the Medi- 

 terranean Sea. He recognized fragments of shells lying at the 

 bottom which had resisted the weathering process for centuries. 

 Historians assert, in addition to the Purpura, the dyers used in the 

 vats a Patella Limpet. This seems erroneous. Probably the free 

 floating violet was the Mollusc referred to. 



The lanthina fragilis is very common. When you handle a 

 living one it exudes from the margin of the mantle a violet- colored 

 fluid, as implied by the name. The shell is so fragile that it seems 

 to have been impossible for Dr. Wylde to discover the smallest frag- 

 ment in the cauldrons he examined. In a paper published in our 

 Proceedings, No. VII., for the session 1890-91, entitled "The Irish 

 Celts and their Relics," the writer alluded to some experiments 

 made by Sir William, on his return from his travels to Dublin, on 

 the Purpura brandeis of Ireland, a shell very closely related to the 

 one he found in fragments, but yet easily recognizable. It seems 

 here unnecessary to assert that while he undoubtedly succeeded in 

 ascertaining that brilliant coloring may be extracted from the slimy 

 creatures, the Royal Tyrian purple color evaded research. One 

 important ingredient was not forthcoming. The ancient dyers 

 probably jealously guarded the secrecy of their trade, no doubt, 

 when they misled the Romans to suppose that the Petella, or 

 Limpet, was also employed in the dying process. Stray lanthinas 

 are occasionally picked up on the shores of the south of England 

 after a continuance of southern gales. In the open sea and coral 

 zones they are said to be found in thousands. The aperture, inde- 

 pendent of the violet color, is quite sufficient to distinguish them 

 from other Gasteropods. Woodward classes the shell with the 

 Haliotidce., together with Plurotomaria and Murchisoma fossilized 

 specimens. We may remark he considers the Tritons., the Ranillas 

 (frogs), and Ficsidx (spindles) as belonging to the Muricidce. Others 



