UNIVALVES. 



PLATE II. 



Genus. MUREX. 

 Character. A spiral shell, tuberculous; in form oblong, acuminated; the 

 cheek of the mouth standing straight forwards; the spire without sutures; the 

 columella twisted ; beak bent outwards. 



Species. 

 No. 1. Murex polygonus. Shell of a bright red colour, approaching to brown, 



interspersed with waving lines of dark red ; columella partially ridged ; 



mouth of a pale brown. 

 No. 2. Murex babylonicus. So named from a supposed resemblance to the 



Tower of Babel. Shell white, and spotted irrregularly with large and 



small square spots of a brown colour; the cheek of the mouth jagged, 



as if broken or torn away ; the inside white. 

 No. 3. Murex variegatus. Shell white, irregularly streaked with waving lines 



of red; inside of the mouth partially fluted with narrow streaks; the 



tubercles of the spire very prominent. 

 No. 4. Murex forceps. Shell pale brown, inclining to an olive colour, strongly 



decussated with deep waving ridges, extending over the whole surface ; the 



sides of the beak very straight ; the cheek of the mouth deeply fluted. 

 No. 5. Murex colus. Shell of a pale red ; strongly marked projecting tubercles 



of a white colour fenced with dark red ; the beak very long ; mouth of a 



pale brown colour. 



REMARKS. 



Several writers have denominated the Murices by the general name of turrita, from the 

 supposed resemblance of their spire to a tower. Lamarck, in a late Essay upon the fossil 

 Shells found near Paris, describes, under the general name of Murex, several shells having 

 three ridges in the spire, and a small groove in the maxilla, but which are certainly very dif- 

 ferent from any recent shell passing under the name of Murex. The character of the genus 

 Murex, as laid down by Linnaeus, is such as I have described it above, for which I have in- 

 deed quoted his specific name, being unwilling to quit so good an authority, unless from an 

 obvious necessity, which 1 did not at all perceive. Of the threefold shell denominated in 

 this Work Triplex, it is supposed that Linnaeus never saw but one specimen, and which 

 he describes with the Murices, calling it Murex ramosus, choosing rather to throw it into 

 that genus ; but as many new shells have been recently discovered, the necessity of separat- 

 ing the anomalous ones, and of joining to them the other species, became every day more 

 necessary to the right comprehension of the works of nature. 



