232 CARDIUM. 



GAPING COCKLE. 

 PL 56./. 2. Mrs. Mawe. 



44. Cardium apertum. C. testa subcordata, tenuissima, alba, costis ob- 



soletis carinatis. Gronov. Zooph. pi. 18. f. 5. 

 Shell somewhat heart-shaped, with very thin, white ribs, obsoletely cari- 



nated. 

 Testa subcordata, tenuissima, alba, antice producta, hiante, costis obsoletis, 



acutis, muticis. Brug. Encyclop. Method. Hist. Nat. 6. pi. 226. 

 Chem. Conch. 6. pi. 18. f. 181—183. Encyclop. Method, pi. 296. f. 5. 



a. b. 



A very thin, fragile, whitish shell, with numerous 

 worn ribs; round at one end, and produced at the 

 other, where it gapes considerably ; the margin is den- 

 tated. Inside white, stained with purple towards the 

 middle, and at the open end of the shell ; hinge with 

 four teeth in each valve, two at the beak, as in other 

 species, and two lateral, oblong, like those in the genus 

 Mactra. Length an inch and a quarter , breadth an 

 inch and a half ; but it grows to a larger size. 



Inhabits the seas of Asia and South America ; Gro- 

 novius says, the coasts of Jamaica. It is a very rare 

 shell, and is referred by Gmelin to C. virgineum of 

 Linnaeus ; but that shell is a doubtful species, certainly 

 not the C. apertum, but perhaps the C. glaucwm of 

 Bruguiere. 



