212 JOUUNAL OF CONCUOI.OGY, VOL. lO, NO. 7, }Vl.\, 1002. 



with them, part of it being snails, some of which escaped and became 

 naturahzed, but they exchanged a decomposed coral soil for a sandy 

 one, and got changed by their surroundings, but I am convinced that 

 P. edtvardsianus as it is called, is only a variety of P. i?isignis, P. 

 ouveanus and the Loyalty group." 



To shew you how these so-called species run into one another, I 

 again quote Mr. Layard: ^'' Placostyltis souvillei, P. gitestieri, and some 

 of the forms especially of P. alexander and P. kanalensis are, in my 

 estimation, all one ; but they slide into P. cicatricosus and through some 

 of them into P. mat-iei., P. scaralms and the rest. Through P. rossiteri 

 they merge into the thin group of P. savesi, P. heiuguenensis, and P. 

 havnyi. These are very rare and local, P. heinguenensis only being 

 found at Heinguen, P. savesi not far from it, and P. biwayi only found 

 at Mount Mon, miles away but nearer to P. rossiteri^ 



As an instance of the scarcity and difficulty of getting these shells, 

 Mr. Layard says that some of the convicts escape at times and 

 get into the mountain, where they would murder any European for the 

 sake of his clothes, which would give them a better chance of escaping 

 from the island. He had four natives collecting for him on Mount 

 Mon, and they only got him five specimens of P. bavayi in a week. 



Placostylus bovimis and var. s/iongii of New Zealand are evidently 

 aberrant members of this group and there are traces of this form in 

 many of the Fijian P/acostyH, also in P. fiilgine^is from the New 

 Hebrides (Vati and Tauna) and in the shells from Lord Howe Island 

 and Rabbit Island, and you may trace it in P. strangei, P. stiitchburyi 

 and others, some of them have distinctly shown or indicated, the humpor 

 tooth on the columellar lip, but the oddest thing is the occurrence of this 

 tooth and the twist in the outer lip of Diplomorpha layardi and D. 

 delaniouri from the New Hebrides. The whole group suddenly ceases 

 with that fine shell P. cleryi, away to the north in the Solomon Islands, 

 which seems an exaggerated Fijian form, has (in some) traces of the 

 hump and is so deciduous, that you will not get one in 500 shells with 

 its green epidermis, which is much the color of many of the New 

 Caledonian shells when very freshly taken in the forest. 



Another curious thing : At Artillery Point, close to Noumea, is a 

 bold headland, a kind of chalk or limestone, in which are found sub- 

 fossil shells, said to be P. savesi, P. guestieri, and others, not now 

 found living within one hundred miles. P. savesi was described from 

 the sub-fossil form long before it was found living. P. senilis, another 

 sub-fossil species, is found in a similar locality in the Isle of Pines. 

 These sub-fossil species are becoming very rare, as they are burning 

 the material for lime, and using it for the roads, so that hardly any 

 perfect shells can now be found. 



P. porpliyrosionuts and several other species are always decorticated 



