226 



CERITHIUM. 



STROM BUS PALUSTRE. LillllCeUS. 



^^ Mart. 4, t. 156, f. 1472. 



Mawes Linnaeus, pi. 25,f.5,j>l. 26,/ 6. 

 Bruguiere first established this beautiful and nume- 

 rous genus, and adopted for a generic title the name 

 given by Adanson to one of its species, which Lamarck 

 has consequently preserved. The greater number of 

 these shells were blended with the genera Murex, 

 Strombus, and Trochus, by Linnaeus. The G. Ceri- 

 thium is nearly allied to the G. Pleurotoma, but the 

 aperture has not the slit on the right margin ; and there 

 are other distinctions, which render a separation ex- 

 tremely proper. The spire of these shells occupies 

 at least two-thirds of the whole length of the shell, 

 the last whorl only slightly exceeding in size the 

 previous one, giving it the appearance of a sharp point- 

 ed elongated pyramidal cone; the exterior surface is 

 seldom smooth, but variously striated, granulated, tu- 

 berculated, or spinous; and sometimes with varices and 

 bands, most singularly diversified in each of the spe- 

 cies. The regularity and elegant distribution of these 

 protuberant parts, as well as those of the G. Pleuroto- 

 ma, and G. Fusus, might furnish a sculptor with the 



