CONCHOLOGY. 



the spire, with four belts of whitish dots ; the two others towards 

 the narrow end each with a single row of dots. 



If in the preceding instances we have produced some novelties 

 worthy of particular attention, the present shell, in point of value 

 ^s well as beauty, must also lay a distinguished claim to our consi» 

 deration. This is one of those rare varieties of Conus Ammiralis 

 denominated the Cedo Nulli, or Cedo Nulli pretiossissimus, 

 in allusion to the incomparable value affixed to the varieties of thi$ 

 peculiar species. The importance attached to the shells of this 

 kind may indeed be best conceived by stating that some of it^ 

 varieties have been valued at twenty, fifty, and one hundred guineas ; 

 one, in almost every respect resembling that delineated at figure 4^ 

 the celebrated Cedo Nulli of Lyonefs cabinet, was valued by Lyonet 

 himself, about the year 1732, at three hundred guineas; and 

 leither this shell, or another very similar to it^ actually realized ^ 

 ^um of 1200 florins. 



As the shells of this kind may very justly be presumed to be of 

 the first rarity, every trait of information that may appear calculated 

 to elucidate their history, it is presumed, will not only be permitted 

 but be deemed acceptable, and under this impression the ensuing ob» 

 servations are submitted. 



Much about the tera of the first explosion of the French Revo? 

 lution of 1789, and within the space of a few years after, it i^ 

 perfectly well known that many of the choicest cabinets and cpUec^ 

 tions of rarities tfiat had before been the pride of Ffujicp ^1)4 



