60 BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



Helix lucorum, Kazournowsky (1789), Hist. Nat. Jor. vol. i. p. 274 (not of 



Linnaeus) . 

 Helix variegata, Gmelin (1788), Syst. Nat. p. 3650. 

 Pomatia adspersa, Beck (1837), Ind. Moll. p. 44. 

 Ccenatoria aspersa, Held (1837), Isis, p. 911. 

 Helix (CryptompTialus) aspersa, Moquin-Tandon (1855), Hist. Moll. vol. ii. 



p. 174. pi. xiii. f. 14 to 32. 

 Hal. Throughout Central and Southern Europe. Algeria. The Azores, 



United States. Brazil. (In gardens and woods, in crevices of old walls, 



etc.) 

 With, the exception of H. pomatia, which can hardly be said to be 

 indigenous to Britain, H. aspersa is the largest of our land mollusks. 

 It occurs abundantly with little variation in all parts of our islands, 

 and it is equally abundant in Central and Southern Europe. In 

 Northern and some parts of North-Central Europe it is unknown. 

 It was not known to Linnaeus. In its more extended range the 

 species presents a greater variety of typical forms, passing from the 

 obliquely deflected brown mottled type with which we are familiar 

 in this country, to a more conically convoluted banded type approxi- 

 mating to H. Mazzullii, which MM. Deshayes and Moquin-Tandon 

 regard as a variety of it. 



On examining the shell of H. aspersa with the lens, it will be 

 seen that the whorls are crowded in the ordinary manner with con- 

 centric strise of growth, somewhat rudely puckered at the sutures, 

 but towards the last whorl they are rendered obscure by a copious 

 shagreen of very irregular opake wrinkles, the interspaces between 

 which have a maileated appearance. The predominant colouring of 

 the shell is to be largely blotched in a banded manner with dark 

 brown ; a very characteristic variety occurs of a delicate unspotted 

 straw colour. M. Moquin-Tandon has some curious observations 

 on the occurrence of Helix aspersa in varieties in the South of 

 France. After describing and naming sixteen varieties, among 

 which _£T. Mazzullii stands as var. p crispata, he goes on to remark, 

 " On the 15th of August, 1852, I gathered in the Garden of Plants 

 of Toulouse, 817 specimens. There were 729 more or less charac- 

 teristic types, some of which formed a passage to var. obscurata, 

 51 zonata, 8 grisea, and 29 marmorata. 



Helix aspersa has been frequently eaten, or used in the prepara- 

 tion of a mucilaginous broth, but H. pomatia is the edible snail par 

 excellence. 



