324 COOKE : ON THE GENUS PURPURA. 



One would have thought it impossible for any conchologist who 

 had read Kiener's description of his ocellata, and looked at his 

 figure (copied by Tryon), to avoid recognising in it the young 

 of the well-known Mouoccros hreviJentatuin Gray. Indeed, 

 Tryon himself appears at one time to have seen this, for in his 

 Index he gives P. oceUata Kien. (t. 37, f. 86) ?JS>=Monoceros 

 hrevidentatuin. But in the very next line he says P. oceUata 

 Kien. (t. 37, f 86) = /'. JiippocastaneiDii var. This is somewhat 

 bewildering. But as he does not under Mon. brevidentatum 

 (p. 194) recognise oceUata Kien. as a synonym, we must conclude 

 that he holds to the opinion expressed on page 162, an opinion 

 manifestly erroneous. 



The locality 'Panama' for biftibercularis, quoted on Cum- 

 ing's authority, is incorrect. The species ranges from Suez and 

 Aden (as the var. savignyl) to N. Australia and the S. Pacific 

 (type) ; also to Japan. No Polynesian Purpura occurs on the 

 western coasts of America. 



Page 163. — P. tumulosa Reeve. 'The adult specimen 

 (jP. bro!iui)...'\s remarkable...' 



This implies that tuinidosa is an immature shell, and that 

 Bronni is the full-grown form. An examination of the type of 

 tumulosa at the British Museum shows that it is by no means 

 an immature shell, but is, on the contrary, stout and thickened 

 with age. It is, further, a very remarkable, almost monstrous 

 variety of P. bitubercularis, in which the tubercles are rounded 

 and of enormous size, almost entirely covering the surface of 

 the body whorl. Save for the fact that it, too, possesses 

 tubercles, P. broiinl is absolutely distinct. It is scarcely even a 

 variety, but only a somewhat smaller form, of luteostouia Chem. 



Page 163. — P. armigera Chem. 'P. affinis Reeve is the 

 young.' 



Reeve describes and figures (' Conch. Ic.,' f. 77) as affinis 

 a shell manifestly adult. Affinis is a dwarf, not a young, form 

 of armigera. 



J.C, v., July, 1888. 



