PLATE I. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER 

 AND 

 SYNONYMS. 



Shell with rough punctures at the base. 



CoNUS Ammiralis : testa basi punctate scabra. 



CoNUS Ammiralis : testa basi punctate. Linn. Syst, Nat. 10 



p. 714. n. 257. — Mus. Lud. Ulr. 553. n. 157. 



GmeL Linn. Si/st. Nat. 3378. 10, 



CoNUS Ammiralis var Amboinensis. «. Spire high and 

 tapering ; shell pyriform, glossy, smooth, pale yellowish with two 

 broad bands of testaceous marked with large subsaggitate oval spots 

 of white, and a narrow band between composed of white spots and 

 intermediate testaceous dots. 



Were it within the contemplation of our present views to enter 

 into the ancient history of the science of Conchology, we should 

 be under little difficulty in demonstrating upon the authority of the 

 best informed historians as well as ancient classics that it has a claim 

 to very remote antiquity. The study of Shells prevailed, at least 

 to some extent, in those early times when the generality of man- 

 kind believe the world to have been buried in the depths of ignorance. 

 At periods, even when some among those of better information may be 

 inclined to imagine that the ancients could have had no very accurate 

 conceptions of the nature of these bodies, or of their classification, 

 natural or artificial, and even when it might be supposed from the 

 warlike temper of the age the collecting of shells would have been 

 deemed an unworthy occupation, we discover sufficient indications 



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