CYMBA. 



Testa levis, admodum ventricosa. Epidermis leevis,fusca, tegmine quasi vitreo partvm vel omnino 

 obducta. Apexrudis. Spirabrevissima. Columella curva, 2--4 plicata, plicis magnis, 

 acutis. Labium externum hand rejlexum. Basis profunde emarginata. Apertura 

 Mans. 



Caput grande, planum, tentaculis remotis, ocidis pone tentacula positis. Pallium magnum. 

 Pes maximus. Operculum nullum. Animal carnivorum. 



Habitat mariiium in calidioribus mundi veteris regio?iibus. 



Obs. The genus Cymba seems to form a natural group of testaceous Mollusca, the shells 

 of which are marked by very strong characters ; for these are ventricose, sombre, and, for the 

 most part, uniform in colour, and the apex of the spire is so rudely fashioned, that in the 

 greater part of the species, it may be said to be almost shapeless. The shells are covered with 

 a smooth brown epidermis, which is, in adult individuals, more or less coated, (in some instances 

 entirely) with a vitreous" covering or enamel-like glaze, probably secreted by the mantle. The 

 columella is curved, and the base deeply emarginate. The food of these marine Trachelipoda 

 consists of animal substances : they are inhabitants of warm climates, and there is no direct 

 evidence that one of the genus has been found in the New World, if we confine the meaning 

 of that term to America and its Islands ; neither is the author aware that any of the shells of 

 this genus have been found in a fossil state. 



Some explanation may be necessary to account for the adoption of the generic name Cymba 

 instead of Cymbium, which is used by many of the continental writers to distinguish the Gon- 

 dolieres of Lamarck (Cymba and Melo, nob.). Klein, Adanson, and Denys de Montfort describe, 

 it is true, a genus Cymbium. But Adanson employed the term in 1757, to distinguish a genus, 

 which, from the extreme simplicity of the structure of the shell, he places at the head of the 

 univalves, and which, under no system, could be deemed even an approach to a turbinated shell 

 with plaits on the pillar. Denys de Montfort, in 1810, designates by the term Cymbium a 

 genus, of which he makes Voluta vEthiopiea, Auct. (Melo iEthiopicus, nob.) the generic type : 

 nor does he mention any other species. Klein, indeed, calls Adanson's Yet, " Cymbium," but 

 Gualtieri had used the Avord in 1742 (eleven years before Klein published his " Tentamen") as 

 a generic name for the Argonauts of Linnaeus. It may be added, that De Blainville, in his 

 " Malacologie," figures Cymba Cymbium (Voluta Cymbium, Auct.) as an illustration of De 

 Montfort's genus. De Montfort, who figures Melo iEthiopicus, as his example, gives the 

 following as one reason for separating the genus from Voluta, " le mamelon de leur Coquille est 

 particulier." The apex of Melo is indeed regularly and beautifully fashioned; but that of 

 Cymba is almost a shapeless mass. 



Since the publication of the genus Cymba inSowerby's " Genera," the author has observed 

 that term applied by M. M. Quoy and Gaimard, who have so much enriched the catalogue of 

 marine animals, to a genus of naked Mollusca. He regrets this coincidence of names, but, 

 adhering to the rule of priority, sees no reason for making any alteration. 



