J. S. Gardner — British Eocene Land MoUusca. 245 



based on a unique specimen said to be from Sconce, and recently 

 acquired for the National Collection. 



The shell is regularly spiral, and tapers gradually. The extremity 

 is broken, but, supposing, as seems probable, that the spire was 

 continued at the same angle, and allowing that the apex was as 

 obtuse relatively as in the last species, the total length must have 

 reached 130 rams., or more than five inches. The spiral angle is 

 about 18° and the length preserved of the shell 106 mm., comprising 

 10 whorls. The whorls towards the apex are more than twice as 

 wide as high, the last but two being exactly twice, the penultimate 

 whorl 17 mm. higrh, to 30 mm. diameter along; the inferior suture, 

 and the body-whorl 10 mm. high and 30 mm. in greatest diameter. 

 The whorls are slightly convex and the suture slight. The whole is 

 so finely striated in the direction of the axis, that 4 striae occupy only 

 1 mm. The aperture is invisible, being imbedded in the matrix. 

 The peristome was evidently much reflected, but has been chipped 

 away unfortunately, through ignorance of its form. The shell has 

 been replaced by thin, translucent arragonite, and is of a peculiar pale- 

 yellow, suggesting palpably that traces of the original colouring- 

 yet remain. 



Though evidently allied to B. elliptica, the characters are altogether 

 so peculiar, that it has been separated specifically. It departs more 

 widely than the last from any existing species. 



The specimen described was purchased from Mr. Gregory as a 

 Bembridge-Limestone fossil, and the matrix has the characters of this 

 limestone. In the South of France it occurs in the Palseotherium- 

 limestone of Villeneuve and Mas Saintes Puelles, and is not rare. 



The group AmpTiidromiis is confined within well-defined limits — 

 the Philippines, Timor, Celebes, the Malayan Peninsula, and southern- 

 most China, and an outlier in the Eastern Himalayas.^ Of 13 species, 

 8 are persistently sinistral, but individuals among the remainder are 

 sometimes dextral. 



In the luxuriant and open forests of the Philippines, the vegetation 

 and climate combine to favour the growth of arboreal species, and 

 the genus is represented in prolific splendour. " Mr. Cuming must 

 have truly felt like one transported to the fabled gardens of the 

 Hesperides, when beholding the lofty trees of these sunny isles laden 

 with snails of such magnificent proportions. Aladdin, in the Arabian 

 tale, could not, surely, have contemplated the rich clusters of vari- 

 coloured fruit in the garden of the African magician with more 

 astonishment, nor probably gathered it with more avidity." ^ The 

 animal in the Philippines is uniformly of a sombre olivaceous brown, 

 and dwells in family groups, as it were, among the shady foliage of 

 the branches. An observation strikingly in accord with the arrange- 

 ment of the fossils is that out of a group of some dozen living 



^ Preussische Expedition nach Ost-Asien, Zoologische Tlieil, vol. ii. E. von 

 Martens, 1867. 



^ lieeve, Conchologia Iconica, 1849, vol, v. p. 1. 



