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Nicobar, and is middle-fized. ' The (hell is thin, fofy, with 

 white rays. 



OcciDEKS. The fhell of this fpecies is tranfverfely Itriate, 

 fmooth at the protuberant parts, radiate with white and 

 reddifh ; both the hinges are two-toothed, with a hollow in 

 the middle. Its refidence is not known. The (hell is 

 marked with white and reddifh fpots fcattered about ; is 

 more than four inches broad, and two long ; both ends are 

 gaping ; the hinge is lateral. 



* Crispus. The (hell, in this fpecies, is partly fmooth, 

 partly rough with undulate crimped hues ; the hinge has a 

 long narrow tooth. It is found iti the river Tees, and 

 refembles the S. anatinus, though it is thought by fome 

 raturalifts not to be a diftinft fpecies. 



Spengi.kri. Protuberances or beaks of the (hell two- 

 parted ; primary tooth of the hinge rounded, acceflbi-y 

 ones long and narrow ; one of them is curved. The fhell 

 is hardly an inch long, but two and a half broad ; it is 

 rounded at both ends. 



Rondeletius obferves, that there are, among the folens 

 of the fame fpecies, males and females, which are eafily 

 diftinguifhable from one another ; and that the females are 

 larger, have no variegations on the fliells, and are much 

 better tafted than the males. Rumphius has defcribed a 

 very remarkable fpecies of folen, which always remains 

 buried in fand, and which is not properly a bivalve, confin- 

 ing only of one piece, though of the fhape of the folen ; 

 he calls thkfokn arenarius. Lifter has called the crooked 

 {fecxesfolenes curvi, and fome call them the fcymltar folens. 



We have feveral fpecies of the ilraight folens, though 

 but few of the crooked ones. 



Of the crooked iolens, two are the only known fpecies. 

 I. The fcymitar folen. 2. The fokn arenarius, always 

 found in fand. 



The fhell of this fifh is compofed of two pieces, which 

 are the two halves of a hollowed cylinder, with an ellip- 

 tic bafe, divided in a longitudinal direftion. Thcfe two 

 pieces arc fattened together near one end by a ligament, 

 like that which joins the (hells of the mufcle or the oyiter. 

 From the place where thi<! ligament is fixed, quite to the 

 other end of the fhell, there is a membrane fallened to each 

 edge of the fhell, and this increafes in breadth in proportion 

 to its diltance from the place of its origin ; fo that, viewed 

 externally, it form? a fort of ifofceles triangle, the bafe of 

 which was abovit two lines in breadth. The colour and 

 confluence of this membrane give it very mucli the ap- 

 pearance of a piece of parchment ; it has a confiderable 

 fpring in it, and ferves on occafion to open, or draw toge- 

 ther, the two fides of the fhell. 



There is another membrane, of the fame kind with this, 

 fattened to the other fide of the fifli, there adhering to each 

 fhell, but this is of an equal breadth all the way down : 

 this ferves alfo to (hut or open the edges of the (hell. 

 When the folen (huts its (hell, it folds itfelf into feveral 

 longitudinal wrinkles, which open again when the fides of 

 the (hells feparate. 



Hence it is to be obferved, that though this (hell has a 

 power of opening and (hutting, yet the body of the fifh 

 is always fecured, and i? no more expofed to fight at one 

 time than at another, and there is no part where the fifh 

 can be fcen but at the ends. 



This fifh lives in the fand on the fea-fhore, where it 

 buries itfelf often a foot and a half, or two feet deep ; the 

 length of the (hell is, at this time, nearly in a vertical 

 pofition, and the fifh has a power of raifing itfelf at plea- 

 fure up to the furface, and finking down again, while the 

 fhell remains all the time buried iu its place. Almoft all 



I 



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other animals have a horizontal motion, and the (helf-fifh 

 of the fea crawl along upon its bottom imder water, as the 

 common land animals do on dry ground ; but this creature's 

 progreflive motion is only vertical, and that confined to a 

 very fmall compafs ; all that it is able to do for itfelf 

 being only to raife itfelf higher or lower, and fink deeper 

 or rife higher in the fand, within the narrow compafs of 

 about two feet at the utmoll, as the going beyond that 

 mull occafion its deltrudion. Where thefe fhell-fifh are 

 buried in the fand, there is a hole reaching from every one 

 of them to the furface, by means of which they have a free 

 communication with the water : thefe holes generally are 

 placed in great numbers near one another, and are eafily 

 diltinguifhcd at a time when the tide has left the (hore 

 uncovered. They are not round, but oblong, and fome- 

 what refemble the key-hole of a lock, but that they have a 

 roundnefs at each end, whereas that ufually is rounded 

 only at one. 



When it has occafion to afcend out of its hole, nothing 

 more is required than the putting out the end of the leg, 

 fwelling it, and thus thrulling itfelf up to the length of 

 that leg ; then retracing it into the (hell again, and thrult- 

 ing out and inflating its end for a fecond movement of the 

 fame kind. Thefe motions may be all perceived in the 

 creature when out of the land, particularly that by which 

 it buriej itfelf; for if held up in the fingers, it thrufts out 

 the leg, and performs all the motions as if in the fand, 

 making a fruitlefs attempt to fave itfelf in its old way. 

 Mem. Acad. Par. 17 12. 



Klein, and fome others, have given the name folen to the 

 feveral fpecies of tubuH marini. 



SoLEN, in Geography, a town of Weftphalia ; 6 miles 

 S.S.W. of Magdeburg. 



SOLENA, in Botany, fo called by Willdenow, from 

 GAr,\; a tube, or pipe, in allufion to the long tube of the 

 flower. For the fame reafon, Schreber had named this 

 fame genus Cyrtanthus, but the litter appellation is now 

 beflowed on a very different one. (See Cvrt.a.nthl's.) 

 Willd. Sp. PI. V. I. 961. (Cyrtanthus; Schreb. Gen. 122. 

 Pofoqueria ; Aubl. Guian. v. 1. 133. Jiifi. 201. La- 

 marck Illultr. t. 163.) — Clafs and order, Pentandr'ia Mono- 

 gyma. Nat. Ord. Rul'taces, Jufi. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth fuperior, of one leaf, turbi- 

 nate, in five acute, ereS, permanent fegments. Cor. of 

 one petal ; tube very long, cylindrical, recurved, dilated at 

 the fummit, its orifice fringed with hairs ; limb in five deep, 

 oblong, obtufe, reflexed fegment?. Stam. Filaments five, 

 capillary, very fhort, incurved, fomewhat unequal, inferted 

 into the mouth of the tube, between the legments of the 

 Umb ; anthers oblong, acute at each end, attached by their 

 bafe. Pijl. Germen inferior, elliptical ; flyle capillary, as 

 long as the tube ; ftigma minute, three-cleft. Pertc. 

 Berry elliptical, large, of one cell, full of pulp, and 

 crowned with the calyx. Seeds about twelve, angular, im- 

 bedded in the pulp. 



Efr. Ch. Calyx five-cleft, fuperior, permanent. Co- 

 rolla falver-fhaped, with a very long, incurved tube, hairy 

 at the mouth. Stamens inferted into the rim of the tube. 

 Style thread-fhaped. Stigma three-cleft. Berry of one 

 cell, with many angular feeds. 



I. S. longiflora. Guiana Pipe-flower. Willd. n. 1. — 

 (Pofoqueria longiflora; Aubl. Guian. v. i. 134. t. 51.) 

 — Found by Aublet, on the banks of the great rivers of 

 Guiana, flowering in November, and bearing fruit in 

 January. The Galibis call it Aymara-pofoqueri, becaufe a 

 fifh named aymara feeds on the berries. 'V^ejlem is fhrubby, 

 five or fix feet high, with a hard white wood, and flender, 



knotty. 



