230 



PYRULA. 



MUBEX CANALICULATUS. — LinnCCUS. 



Mart. 3, t. 66, f.73S, 740. 



Linn^us intermixed these as well as many other shells 

 of different genera, with his G. Murex; in the arrange- 

 ment of which he appears to have included all the 

 shells having a canal at the base, rendering it in con- 

 sequence an extremely incorrect and widely extended 

 genus. Bruguiere separated them, but was only guided 

 by the want of varices, and did not distinguish the 

 Pyrula from the Fusus, from which it essentially 

 differs; the spire of the former being short and very 

 much depressed, and the last whorl extremely large 

 and ventricose, frequently extending at its margin above 

 the elevated point of the spire, and giving the shells 

 of this genus the form of a fig or pear, which is never 

 the case with the G. Fusus. The Pyrula? are sub- 

 pyriform, canaliculated at the base, without varices; co- 

 lumella smooth, no notch at the lip. To which descrip- 

 tion may be added that the edge of the aperture js 

 most generally erenulafcd, the substance of the shell 



