284 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. 16, NO. 9, JUNE, I922. 



name Helicella to be transferred from the Helicidse to the Zonitidse 

 in the manner suggested by Gude and Woodward, the generic name 

 Oxychihis Fitz. (1833) would seem to be the best one to employ for 

 H. cellaria Miill. and its allies. This name has priority over Polita 

 Held (1837). Messrs. Kennard and Woodward were clearly wrong in 

 stating that— " Unfortunately, the name Oxychilus is rendered un- 

 tenable by the earlier Oxycheila of Dejean";^ for, as we have seen, 

 there is no Rule which implies this, but, on the contrary, the first. 

 Recommendation of Article 36 prohibits the rejection of names on 

 this account when they have been once introduced. Gray, in Nov., 

 1847, was somewhat inconsistent regarding the type of Fitzinger's 

 genus : on page 173 he gives it as H. ericetorum, but on the following 

 page he says that Fitzinger's genus is equivalent to Beck's Helicella of 

 which he states that the type is Hel. cellaria. Rather more than two 

 months earlier, however, Herrmannsen had designated Helix cellaria 

 Miill. as the type of Oxychilus Fitz.", which seems to settle the matter. 



Perhaps it is fortunate that the name Polita Held, being of a later 

 date, cannot be legitimately used for this group, for in the well-known 

 works of Clessin^ and Taylor* the name Polita has been applied to 

 another group of species, comprising H. nitidula Drap. and its allies, 

 which differs from the cellaria group in so many features of its anatomy 

 that it is probably rightly regarded by Hesse '^ and others as generically 

 distinct. 



It is less fortunate that the familiar name Hyalinia (Ag.) Charp. 

 cannot be retained for this genus if the Rules are to be followed.' 

 This name of course should not be rejected because of the earlier 

 but slightly different names Hyalitia and Hyalinus^ ; but like Polita 

 Held it was not proposed until four years after the publication of 

 Fitzinger's paper. Moreover, in Dec, 1852, Herrmannsen, in the 

 Supplement to his Index of Genera, designated H. crystallina as the. 

 type q{ Hyalinia (Ag.) Charp. (1837); and as this species is generally 

 admitted to be quite closely related to H. diaphana, the type of 

 Fitzinger's genus Vitrea, de Charpentier's name Hyalinia becomes a 

 virtual synonym of Vitrea Fitz. (1833). 



Summary of Conclusions. 



The foregoing considerations appear to show that those who wish, 

 not only to classify snails in accordance with what is now known of 



1 Proc. Malac. Soc, vol. xiv, 1920, p. B6. 



2 "Indicis Genei um Malacozoorum Primordia, ' vol. ii, p. 183. (See note on p. 279astothe- 

 validity of Herrmannsen's designations of types). 



3 Deutsche Excurs.-Mollusken-Kauna, 1884, p. 87. , ..: 



4 Monogr. L. and F.W. MoUusca Brii . Is., 1908, vol iii, p. 67. 



5 Naclir. Deutsch. Malacoz. Gesells., 1914, pp. 128—136. 



6 See argument under Hygromia. The present International Rules had not been drawn up 

 when Smith wrote his paper on the nomenclature of this genus (Journ. 0/ Conch., vol. vi, 1891, 

 PP' 337—339)- 



