smith: on the genus astarte. 219 



1878. Tridonta boreal is Chemn. Sars, Norg. Arkt. Fauna, 

 p. 50. 



Habitat. — West Greenland, east coast of United States 

 Spitzbergen, Iceland, North Russia, Nova Zembla, Franz 

 Joseph's Land, Behring's Sea, Norway, Lofoden Islands, &c. • 



The shell described by Linne as Verms boreaiis, judging from 

 the diagnosis and the specimen in his cabinet is, according to 

 Hanley, the Lucma radiila of Lamarck,* but the figure he refers 

 to represents the Scrobiadaria piperita of Gmelin. On the 

 contrary Romerf observes that it " gehort hiernach immer noch 

 zu deu zweifelhaften arten." The specimens figured by Chem- 

 nitzj under this name, are referable to more than one species of 

 Astarte. Figures 412 and perhaps 414 in my opinion represent 

 one species, which may retain the name boreaiis for reasons 

 hereafter stated, and a specimen of A. sulcata Da Costa, is 

 doubtlessly depicted by figure 413. Considering Chemnitz's 

 confused notion of Linne's species, and the fact that one of the 

 shells he described and figured had previously been named by 

 Da Costa, it seems to me it would have been advisable to reject 

 his name boreaiis, and to have employed that ( sernisulcata ) given 

 by Leach, that being the first name subsequently published had 

 not Schumacher in 181 7, two years prior to the publication of 

 Leach's name, restricted the Chemnitzian species. In his "Essai 

 d'un Nouveau Systeme des habitations des vers testaces," p. 147, 

 he refers to Chemnitz, plate xxxix., figure 412 only, thus limiting 

 the species, observing — "notre coquille (figured in his plate 

 xvii., f. i) n'est que finement striee, et c'est exactement la meme 

 coquille de Mr. Chemnitz que se trouve classe'e dans la CoUec- 



*Hanley, IpsaLinnasiConchylia, p. 77. +KritischeUntersuch. Venus, pp. 92-4. 

 J Conchylien Cabinet, vol, vii., p. 26, pi. xxxix., f. 412 — 4, 



