258 TOITRNAL OF CONCHnT.OGY, VOT,. 16, NO. 8, JANUARY, I922. 



The identity of the l)ig Cape IViiline witli our familiar Britisli 

 species is unlikely, though Bergh (I.e. p. 26) is inclined to unite them 

 " in spite of some differences." I have little doubt that further 

 investigations will confirm these differences and it seems better pro- 

 visionally to separate them. The Linnean name apei-ta belongs 

 indisputably to the Cape shell — 'Liniie says " Habitat ad Cap. b. spei 

 (Laur. Spengler) " — and the British species should be called 'P. 

 schrcEtni Phil. 



This reduces the list of 34 species to six, one of which, A. argo L. 

 is pelagic, but I fully expect that the shell listed as Trochita cliinensis 

 L. will prove distinct from its European analogue when its soft parts 

 have been stndied. Similarly the naming of Nuciila radiata F. & H. 

 (i.e. nucleus L.) is purely tentative, as at present it is only known from 

 worn valves. 



•' Smith had reason to believe that Sowerby's Cyliclina umhilicata 

 was a misnomer for Retusa truncatula Brug. We have, therefore, 

 three species left, Retusa truncatula Brug., V. verrucosa I., and 

 Saxicnva arctica L., which certainly seem — as far as one can judge 

 from shell characters — to be common to Britain, the Mediterranean 

 and S. Africa. Sowerby proposed a var. capensis for the Cape V. 

 7'e7yucosa, but I see no object in perpetuating this name ; specimens 

 in all stages of growth seem indistinguishable from those found in the 

 Channel Islands. 



^ Fischer is, therefore, correct in saying that the European species 

 found at the Cape are very few : he instances Lascea rubra and Pecten 

 push, the latter being an error of identification for P. tinctus Rve. 

 Bartsch has recently described the Cape Lascea as a new species 

 (Z. turtoni) distinct from rubra. 



This analysis of Sowerby's statement will serve as an object lesson 

 on the difficulties which attend the naming of Cape marine shells. 

 These difficulties are mainly due to the " deadness " of much of the 

 available material. Probably no beaches are richer than some of the 

 Cape ones — witness the famous Port Alfred shore from which 

 Col. Turton has gathered over 800 species atthe very least within astretch 

 of ten miles. But most of these are beach-rolled, and it is no exag- 

 geration to say that a considerable proportion of the species on the S. 

 African list has never been seen alive ; some of the quite well-known 

 bivalves, especially minute forms belonging to such genera as Roche- 

 fortia, Carditella and Hochstetteria^ are still only known from single 



1 S. N. ed. xii, p. 1183 



2 Enum. Moll. Sic, ii, 



3 J. Malac. , xi, 38. 



4 Man, Conch., 155. 



