SOLEN. 141 



SEMI-OVAL RAZOR. 



35. Solen Pinna. S. testa depresso-subovata ; valvulisad cardinem rectis. 



Linn. Trans. 8. p. 48. 

 Shell somewhat oval, depressed ; valves, from the hinge, straight. 

 Mont. Test. Brit. p. 566. pi. 15. f. 3. Penn. Br. Zool. 1812. v. 4. p. 175. 



This is a thin, brittle, pellucid, white shell, depressed 

 and strongly wrinkled concentrically : one valve is 

 rather concave, the other convex ; both valves are con- 

 nected by a cartilage, which runs in a straight line from 

 the hinge to the extremity of the shell, giving it the ap- 

 pearance of an oval, divided in its longer diagonal. The 

 inside is white, and has a blunt tooth in each valve, 

 standing by the side of each other when the valves are 

 closed, but not inserted ; the largest tooth is in the 

 concave valve. 



Mr. Montagu, to whom conchology is so much in- 

 debted, has also discovered this shell, and given it the tri- 

 vial name of Pinna, from the circumstance of the valves 

 being connected, along one side of the shell, like the 

 species of that genus. It is about the size of half the 

 thumb nail, divided lengthwise. It was taken alive, by 

 dredging, at Torcross in Devonshire. 



In concluding the descriptive account of the species 

 belonging to the genus Solen, it must be noticed that the 

 S. crispus of Gmelin, p. 3228. No. 22, is the Pholas cris- 

 pata, before described by him in its proper place, p. 3215. 

 No. 6, with a reference to Lister, which reference he 

 has repeated in the genus Solen. 



