86 Beautiful Shells. 



translate into a pleasant or agreeable cake, tlie shell, 

 it will be seen, is round like a cake, and its smooth- 

 ness and regularity of form render it agreeable to 

 look upon. This species, too, comes from the 

 Indian Seas, where it is taken on sandy bottoms. 

 The American Spiny Oyster, or Sjpondylus Ame- 

 ricanus, brings us into another family, that of the 

 Water Clams, called by naturalists Sjpondylidce ; 



with the spines stuck out every way, and no way in 

 particular, it looks like a head of hair greatly in 

 need of the assistance of one of its pectinated 

 relatives. The specific name of this curious shell 

 explains itself; the generic name comes from the 

 Latin Sjoondylis — a kind of serpent. 



Passing over the family Malleidce, or Hammer 

 Oysters, we come to the Meleagrinidw, or Pearl 

 Oysters, of which Fig. 1, Plate VIII. is an example. 



