200 smith: on the genus astarte. 



Conchylien," vol. ii., pp. 55 — 60, where a complete monograph 

 of the then known species is given, illustrated by a plate. 

 Sowerby wrote a monograph in the ''Thesaurus conchyliorum," 

 and another, a very bad copy of the former, in the "Conchologia 

 Iconica." Perhaps a few remarks upon the latter may serve to 

 show how inaccurate it is. In the first place to give an idea of 

 its incompleteness, I may mention that only about thirty-eight of 

 the seventy then published names which had been given to the 

 species of this genus are referred to. Here also Mr. Sowerby's 

 notorious misspelling of words is seen. Tridonia of Schumacher, 

 is called Tridenta. A. triangularis is changed to irigo?iuIaris. 

 Da Costa appears as Costa, Nilsson as Nilson and MoUer as 

 Muller. The statement that " all the species except the Medi- 

 terranean A. fvsca inhabit northern seas " is manifestly incorrect, 

 for one was already known from Patagonian regions, another from 

 Florida, and two others from the Mediterranean. The A. castanea 

 of eastern North America is erroneously assigned to "Arctic 

 Seas," and it was not described by Say in the American Journal 

 of Science, but in the Journal of the Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 

 of 1822, Sowerby's figure also (fig. la) does not appear to 

 represent this species, but rather a variety oi A. fvsca of Poli, for 

 I do not find that the American shell is ever rayed. ^'■Astarte 

 striata Gray" should be Nicania striata Leach. '■'■A. vndti- 

 costata" was named by J. Smith and not by Macgillivray. 

 Blainville never described a " Venus crassatella," but merely gave 

 a French name ( Venus crassatellk) to the Venus dannioniensis of 

 Montagu. The anterior side of A. quadians is longer, not 

 ''shorter." A. crenata G ny, was described by that author under 

 the generic name of Nicania in the Appendix to "Parry's first 

 Voyage," and is not a manuscript name as Sowerby infers, and 

 throughout the rnonogra} h the umbones are termed "umboes." 

 These are some of the errors occurring in the text, and the 



J.C, iii., July, 1881 



