Class VI. MYA. GAPER. I6t 



that the cr3^stalline balls in old leases, called 

 mineral pearl, were mistaken for them.* 



^Ve believe that Ccesar was disappointed of 

 his hope : yet we are told that he brought home 

 a buckler made Mith British pearl,! which he 

 dedicated to, and hung up in the temple of 

 Venus Genetrii\ A proper offering to the 

 Goddess of Beauty, who sprung from the sea. 

 I cannot omit mentioning, that notwithstanding 

 the classics honor our pearl with their notice, 

 yet they report them to have been small and 

 ill colored ; an imputation that in general they 

 are still liable to. Pliny]^ says, that a red 

 small kind was found about the Thracian Bos- 

 phorus, in a shell called Mya, but does not 

 give it any mark to ascertain the species. 



Lin. Tt.\i\\..22. ]\Iya Pholadla. Mont. Test. \\. dubia. 



Br, 28. dubious, 



M. with a rudiment of a tooth within one shell; 

 with an oval and large hiatus opposite to the 

 hinge. Shells brown and brittle. 



Shape of a, pistac/iia nut. Length of a horse- 

 bean. Tab. xlvii. 



* JVoodwarcTs Metliod of Fossils, 2Q. pari ii, 

 + Plinii, lib, ix. c. 35. Tacitus Fit. ylgricolce. 

 X Plinii, lib. ix. c. 35o 



