366 



MOLLUSCA. 



Fif,'. ]S4.— Murcx tci 



The Murkx, Linn.* — 

 Emliraccs all blicll:!; wiiosc canal is elongate and straight. I have found in the animals of all the sub- 

 genera a prohoi^cis ; a]i[)r(>xiniatcd long tontarnla, wiih the eyes external at their base ; a hnrny oper- 

 cuiuiu, and no veil over tlie head : they otherwise resemble the Buccina, except in the length of the 

 siphon. Bniguiures divided them into two genera, subsequently subdivided into others by Lamarck 

 and Montfort. 



Miirer, l'rii;j:., arc all shells with a salient straii;lit canal, aiid with varices across the ivliorls. M. Lamarck 

 reservrs this name specially to those in which the varices are not contiguous, so as to make two opposite rows. If 

 their canal is long and slender, and the ^"arices are armed with spines, they belong- to the Murex of Montfort. 



If thevarices are merely nodulous, 

 ^^r they constitute his 7i/'t<n^f.y. Some, 



with a canal of moderate length, 

 have projecting tubes between the 

 spinous varices which penetrate 

 the shell ; and these are the Ty- 

 phis, Montf. The Chicoracca of 

 the same have, instead of spines, 

 the varices g-arnished with plait- 

 ed leaves, torn or divided into 

 branches : their canal is Ions' or 

 moderate, and their foliaceous 

 productions vary infinitely in 

 shape and complexity. When, with 

 a moderate or short canal, the 

 varices are only nodulous, and when the base has an umbilicus, the shell becomes an Aqiiilln, IVInntf. "We have 

 several species on our coasts. If there is no umbilicus, that marks the genus Loior'nim. Lastly, when the canal 

 is short, the spire raised, and the varices simple, the shell is a Tritouinm. The mouth is generally (grooved trans- 

 versely on both sides. We have some large species in our seas. [The 7'. variegatnm is much valued by the inha- 

 bitants of sonic of the Soutii Sea islands.] There are of them some with numerous, compressed, almost mem- 

 branous varices, — the Trophones, Montf. ; and in others they are much compressed and very prominent, but few 

 in number-t 



51. de Lamarck separates from all the Muricc-s of Lruguii-'res the RnneUa. Its character is to have the varices 

 opposite, so that the shell is as it were girded with a border on two sides. Their canal is short, ami the surface is 

 rou:.^hened only with tubercles. The margins of their aperture are furrowed. The ApoUes, Montf., are merely 

 nnil.ilicated Ranelhe. 



F//.y».y, Bru:^- , includes all the shells of this family which have no varices. ATlicn the spire is jirominent, tiie 

 pillar without plaits, and the margin entire, this is the Fnsiis of Lamarck, which Jlontfurt has still further 

 restricted, for he reser\'es this name to such as have no umbilicus. The less elongated and more ventricose 

 species gradually approximate to the Buccina in their shape, and where they have an umbilicus, Montfort calls 

 them Lathirr::. The Sindhiolaria is another subgenus, distinguished by the inner lip being thickened and 

 spreading over the lower part of the last volution and the columella, ami in the adult the outer lip is thickened 

 and turned outward,— a character that connects them with the Murcx. When the spire is raised, the columella 

 without plaits, and when there is near the top of the aperture, on its outride, a well-marked sinus or fissure, we 

 have the characters of /Vt'j^ro^owa, Lam. When this sinus Js wide and touches the spire, some have seized the 

 too slight distinction to make the genus C/ai'a^;;/a. When the spire is depressed, and the pillar without plaits, 

 these are the Pi/rula, Lam., which are either umhilicatod or not. Montfort separates from Pyrula the species 

 with a flattened spire, and which are striated within the mouth, to call them the Fiilgur. They are in some degree 

 Pyrulai with a plaited columella, and the plaits are sometimes even scarcely perceptible. Amid these dismember- 

 nu-iits of W\e Fusil s, Brug., we distinguish (he Fa.u-ialari<i, Lan'i., by some obliiiue and distinct folds on the 

 columella, near the origin of the siphon. 



THri//?t'//*7, Lam., are likewise shells with a straight canal, without varices, distinguishable by having [from 

 three to live] prominent, compressed, transverse folds, all nearly equal in size, near the centre of the columella, 

 and which approximates them to the conical VolutLC : in fact, they only difler by the superior elungation of the 

 syphonal canal, [and in having an operculum, as well as a thickish epidermis]. 



The Strombusid-E (S/ro>/tl/ii>!, Linn.) — 

 Conipriise the shells with a canal either straight or bent to the right, the external lip of the aperture 

 hceoining, in its maturity, more or less dilated, and always marked \\ith a sinus near ihe si[)honal 

 canal, whence the heail issues when the animal comes out. In the greater number this sinus is ai sonio 

 distance from the canal. 



■ r-iijiily Siphono.iloma of M. de Blainville. 

 .ltd Ihnt Cavlcr should have Lnvcii evuii the 



liuii to ibcae new generic of Muntf.ir 



