168 SPECIFIC 



decide so nice a point for better judges than him- 

 self, the author has ventured to follow his own 

 conviction, and to figure the specimen under the 

 title of a Buccinum. His reasons for doing so 

 have been, — that the canal is perfectly distinct, 

 following the revolutions of the whorls, — and that 

 this conformation is not to be found in spiral 

 Patellae, but precisely resembles that of Buccinum 

 patulum, from which the present species appears 

 to be removed but a single gradation in any one 

 respect. At any rate it answers the intended 

 object, which was to exemplify a doubtful shell, 

 for the exercise of the learner. 



Fig. 2. Murex dentatus. 



Shell obovate, caudate ; whorls of the spire 

 striate ; apex produced very smooth ; columella 

 three-plaited. 



Lister Conch. Tab. 815. Fig. 25. 



Specimen white with bands of small reddish 

 and ochraceous parallelogramic spots ; whorls 

 transversely undulate, crowned ; apex cylindrical ; 

 three upper circumvolutions solid ; aperture white, 

 smooth. 



