PELECYPODS. 443 
causing, at the margin, a pucker or break in its even continuity. The 
lunule is large and ribbed; the teeth are small; the color is pure white, 
with a light straw-tinted epidermis. (Plate LXXX.) 
I. dentata. In this species the shells are thin 
and white, with well-marked concentric lines crossed 
by deep oblique narrow furrows bent at nearly 
right angles to the lines of growth and forming teeth 
around the margin. Found along the entire coast. 
LE. californica. The best-known California 
species of this genus. It is pure white, with fine 
concentric lines, and varies in size from one half 
of an inch to one and a half inches in diameter. 
The lateral teeth are the stronger, and the lunule is 
upon the right valve only. With these exceptions this species preserves 
the usual characters of this genus. 
L. nuttallii, belonging to the southern shores of California, is decus- 
sated like fine wickerwork. The shell is flattened and ridged along the 
. hinge-margin. The color is white. Diameter about one inch in large 
specimens. (Plate LXXX.) 
Lucina dentata. 
GENUS Loripes 
ZL. edentula. A species which is seldom captured alive. Its home is 
in the open sea, but vast quantities of its valves are occasionally thrown 
upon the beaches south of Hatteras, as far as the Gulf of Mexico. On 
account of the weak’ hinge ligament, the valves become easily separated, 
and it is not always easy to find two that will exactly match. Loripes 
preserves the same circular outlines as Lucina, but is more ventricose, 
and the hinge and teeth are very feeble. This species is a little over two 
inches in length and slightly under two inches in height. It is pure 
white without, and is finely striated with growth-lines; bright orange 
ee aad about the pallial line and muscle-scars. (Plate 
FAMILY TELLINIDE 
Genus Tellina 
If we should create an aristocracy of beauty among the bivalves, 
as has been done by conchologists among the gasteropods, this 
family would deserve high rank. Most of the American species 
of Tellina are too small to impress one very greatly with their 
beauty, but in the West Indies and in the tropical Pacific waters 
are some wonderfully handsome shells belonging to this or 
to the allied genus Macoma. However, we have in Florida the 
very striking T. radiata, a truly beautiful shell, which, were it 
less common, would be highly prized in collections. Rarity, no 
doubt, adds a wonderful luster to shells as well as to gems. The 
