330 Mr. J. G. Jeffreys on the recent species of Odostomia 



XXXVI. — On the recent species of Odostomia, a genus ofGaste- 

 ropodous Mollusks inhabiting the seas of Great Britain and 

 Ireland. By J. G. Jeffreys, F.R. & L.S .* 



The subject of this paper has originated in a wish expressed by 

 my friend Professor Edward Forbes, that I would exhibit at the 

 meeting my specimens of British Odostomia with a view to the 

 elucidation of the species ; but I thought it might be more gene- 

 rally interesting to the naturalists who are now assembled that I 

 should prepare and read a few notes explanatory of the specimens 

 to be exhibited. 



I propose to give a catalogue raisonne of all the species men- 

 tioned in the title of this paper, referring to other works where 

 any of the species have been already described, and describing 

 any new or unpublished species. As the admirable work of 

 Professor Edward Forbes and Mr. Hanley on the British shells, 

 which is now in course of publication, will contain figures of all 

 the species, it would be superfluous in me so to illustrate this 

 paper ; but the mode in which I propose to illustrate it, by an 

 exhibition of specimens, will probably be more interesting to 

 those members who may take the trouble of examining and com- 

 paring them. 



The first notice which appears to have been published of any 

 of these shells, if we except the Turbo lacteus of Linnaeus (Syst. 

 Nat. 1766), is in Walker's (or rather Jacob's) work on the 

 Minute and Bare Shells discovered by Mr. Boys on the sea- 

 shore near Sandwich, and which was published in 1 784. 



Mr. Adams described and figured several additional species 

 (from the Pembrokeshire coast) in his papers which were pub- 

 lished in the ' Transactions ' of the Linnsean Society in 1795. 

 The descriptions and figures in these publications are however 

 very indistinct and difficult to make out. 



Col. Montagu added many others in his ' Testacea Britannica ' 

 and the Supplement of that work, which were published respec- 

 tively in 1803 and 1808. 



Dr. Turton (in his Conchological Dictionary of the British 

 Isles) does not appear to have increased the number or know- 

 ledge of the species. 



Lamarck did not notice any of these shells in his l Histoire 

 naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres' published in 1822. 



Dr. Fleming (to whom, as will be presently shown, we are in- 

 debted for his generic discrimination of the shells) added, in his 



* Read at the Meeting of the British Association at Swansea in August 

 1848 ; and communicated by the author. 



