Natural History Notes from North Carolina. 



7i 



lectors who have good, clean, perfect specimens, either for 

 sale or exchange, as I am endeavoring to make a special 

 study of them. 



27. Z. sculptilis Bid. In the paper above quoted I cited this 

 species as occurring sparingly here. The shells so called have 

 since been described by Cockerell as Z. carolinensis. They 

 average smaller than typical sculptilis, are thinner and lighter 

 shells, have the spire more depressed and the radiating lines 

 much more numerous or near together. If these close vari- 

 eties are to be distinguished by specific appellations, this is as 

 much entitled to recognition as capnodes, acerms, brittsi, sar- 

 gentiana t etc. This species, and its allies, indentaia, carolinen- 

 sis^ and subrupicola(f), are very closely allied, and ought to be 

 placed in a group by themselves. Mr. Pilsbry has so placed 

 them, in marginal notes sent me, under the genus Vitrea, 

 with their anatomical alliances next to Oniphalina. In this 

 connection, it may be said that shells referred by such emi- 

 nent authorities as Dall, Binney, and Dr. Pilsbry to indenta- 

 tus } seem to me to be as far removed from that species as is 

 indentatus from sculptilis or carolinensis, and as the habits and 

 station of this form are so different from any variety of in- 

 dentatus that twenty-five years of active study and collecting 

 has brought me, I wish particularly to call attention to it. 

 The shell is the most truly hyaline of all our species. It is a 

 very delicate shell, being, in this respect, as diaphanous as 

 V. limpida. The umbilicus is wide and well-rounded out. I 

 call attention to this variety, as to all others in this article 

 that have not been named, in the interest of scientific consis- 

 tency. Why mere varieties shall be elevated to specific rank 

 in one case, and simply passed over in others more distinctly 

 marked is something for our book-makers to explain. This 

 species or variety deserves careful stud}'. The typical sculp- 

 tilis, as described, occurs in the fores* s on the sub -carbon- 

 iferous limestones of Tennessee, in magnificent development. 

 It is a much heavier shell than carolinensis, and exhibits the 

 other differences cited above. 



28. Z. carolinensis Cockerell. This new species has been 

 sufficiently discussed in the preceding note. It occurs in fair 

 numbers, in scattered localities, in rotting leaves. The animals 

 show no specific differences when compared with the above 



