Class VI. MYA. GAPER. 1(55 



that the crystalline balls in old leases, called 

 mineral pearl, were mistaken for them.* 



We believe that C&sar was disappointed of 

 his hope : yet we are told that he brought home 

 a buckler made with British pearl, f which he 

 dedicated to, and hung up in the temple of 

 Venus Genetrix. A proper offering to the 

 Goddess of Beauty, who sprung from the sea. 

 I cannot omit mentioning, that notwithstanding 

 the classics honor our pearl with their notice, 

 yet they report them to have been small and 

 ill colored ; an imputation that in general they 

 are still liable to. Pliny\ says, that a red 

 small kind was found about the Thracian Bos- 

 phorus, in a shell called My a, but does not 

 give it any mark to ascertain the species. 



Lin. Tr. viii. 33. Mya Pholadia. Mont. Test. 11. dubia. 



Br. 28. dubious. 



M. with a rudiment of a tooth within one shell ; 

 with an oval and large hiatus opposite to the 

 hinse. Shells brown and brittle. 



Shape of a pistachia nut. Length of a horse- 

 bean. Tab. xlvii. 



* Woodward's Method of Fossils, 2Q. part ii. 

 f Plinii, lib. ix. c. 35. Tacitus Fit. slgricolce. 

 X Plinii, lib. ix. c. 35, 



