OVULUM.* 



Ovula. Lamarck, Hist. Nat. des Arum, sans vert. VII. p. 366. 



Sowerby, Genera of Shells, No. II. 

 Ovulus, Radius, Calpubnus, Ultimus, Montf. 

 OvulAj Simnia, Leach. 



Testa ovata vel ovato-oblonga, plerumque ventricosa, spirit occulta. Apertura longitudinal is. 

 elongata, supra angusta, infra latior; extremitatibus emarginatis et in canales plus 

 minusve productis; labio interno edentulo, externo rarissime tenui, acuto, plerumque 

 incrassato, involute, interdum Itevi, nonnunquam denticulato sou crenulato. 



When I prepared my account of this genus for the second number of my Genera of Recent 

 and Fossil Shells, I had met with but few species, and Lamarck who had paid much attention 

 to the species had only described twelve recent and two fossil. My acquaintance with them is at 

 present much more extended, and I now present my readers with an account of twenty-seven 

 recent species. Having prepared the present account a long time, I was induced to offer it for 

 publication in the Zoological Journal, where, I have stated that there is one species described in 

 Lamarck's Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans vertebres, namely, the O. hordeaceum, which I 

 have never yet seen: I have, however, since had an opportunity of examining the identical 

 specimen of this species described by Lamarck, and now publish as good an account of it as can 

 be drawn up from the specimen in its present state. f 



The animal of this genus is still unknown to Naturalists; there is, however, strong reason 

 to believe that it is nearly related to that of Cyprcea, all the species being more or less covered 

 with a shining enamel-like shelly coat, evidently deposited by the bipartite mantle spreading 

 over the two sides of the shell, though seldom extending so far over the back as nearly to meet 

 and form a dorsal line as it frequently does in Cyprcea. The affinities of Ovulum appear to be 

 on one side to Cyprcea, and on the other to Bulla, to which it seems to be connected by the Bullce 

 Naucum and cylindrica: this observation must, however, be regarded as suggested by the 

 general similarity in form of the British Bulla patula, which I have here united to Ovulum. 



In their general form the Ovula are more or less ovate or oblong ; most of the species are 

 rather ventricose, a few are, however, nearly cylindrical : the spire is always hidden, its volutions 

 being horizontal and not descending as they increase, but always preserving the same plane: the 

 aperture is longitudinal, of the whole length of the shell, narrow at its upper part, and more 

 expanded towards the base : both the upper and lower extremities are more or less notched, and 



* Ovulum, being a diminutive from Ovum which is neuter, our classical friends will acknowledge the propriety of this change in this 

 termination. 



f I consider myself compelled to notice a shell of which a description is published in the Bulletin des Sciences naturelles as a new species 

 having six brown dots upon its back. Having, at a most disproportionate price become possessed of this shell, I am free to state that the 

 author of that description must have been deceived in it; I can only regard it as a small specimen of Ovulum Margarita, vtpon which some 

 designing person has either burned or painted the six little brown dots! 



