UNIVALVES. 



PLATE XLIX. 



Genus. TURBO. 



Character. Shell spiral ; the mouth whole, and rounded, flattened at the base ; 

 no beak ; spire subturreted ; the umbilicus small, and sometimes nearly impercepti- 

 ble ; columella plain ; cheek and body sometimes armed with spines or tubercles. 



Species. 

 No. 1. Turbo subflavus. Shell of a bright green, shaded with brown; the spire 



tuberculous, and pointed; the mouth circular, and spreading out, of a bright 



gold colour. This specimen was brought from the East Indies, and is in 



the Collection of Lady Wilson. 

 No. 2. Turbo brachiatus. Shell of an olive colour, with a pale gray mouth ; 



the cheek and mouth armed with spines, channelled out, and projecting ; 



spire short and depressed ; mouth projecting, and expanded at the base. 



Native place unknown. 

 No. 3. Turbo perforatus. Shell of an olive brown colour, streaked across with 



yellow and red veins ; the body broad and flattened, the umbilicus strongly 



marked, and perforated at the top, through the spire, forming a sort of 



staircase within. Found in the seas of New Holland. From the Museum 



of Mr. Spence. 

 No. 4. Turbo aurantia. Shell of an orange red, richly adorned with dark bands, 



running transversely across ; the mouth yellow ; the spire rounded and 



smooth, without tubercles. From Mr. Bullock's Museum. 

 No. 5. Turbo pallidus. Shell of a pale red, strongly and closely tuberculated ; 



mouth white and round ; the spire short and pointed. From a shell in the 



Collection of Lady Wilson. 



REMARKS. 



The genus Turbo is distinguished from theTrochus family, already described, by its circular 

 mouth, and the rounded form of its whole body ; the foldings of the spire are also more de- 

 tached from each other ; the variety is very considerable in the various species, as sometimes 

 the umbilicus is very faintly marked, and in others very apparent, and in some few instances 

 even extending through the shell up to the top. The mouth of the Turbo is in general 

 adorned with mother of pearl, or nacre, and forms an elegant contrast with the exterior 

 colours of the shell ; it is very common in the European seas, but not in general reaching to 

 any great size. If we were to describe the character of the genus Turbo from its general and 

 most striking external formation, we should call it a rounded shell, composed of two circles, 

 the one forming the mouth, the other the body and spire, the latter placed obliquely over 

 the other, and not perpendicularly. The want of the beak or rostrum will be always suffi- 

 cient to distinguish it from the Murex and Buccinum, added to which, we have the authority 

 of Linnaeus for its name and adoption in the general system of Conchology. 



