VOLUTA. 



The animals characterized by Linne as VoIuIeb, form 

 rather a heterogeneous assemblage. Mollusca whose 

 branchial system allows them to respire nothing but wa- 

 ter; — others which breathe air, and to which submersion 

 in water for any length of time would be fatal; — animals 

 phytiphagous and carnivorous, terrestrial, fresh water and 

 marine — will be found ranged as congeners in the Systema 

 Naturae. 



But the student must pause before he censures one 

 to whose zeal and acuteness we owe so much. Con- 

 sidering the dim light by which Linne studied Nature, 

 we cannot withhold our admiration of the grandeur of 

 his mind and of the monument which it raised. Had 

 this great man been acquainted with the habits and com- 

 parative anatomy of the Mollusca, it would hardly 

 have been left first to Bruguiere, and afterwards to 

 Lamarck to reform the genus Voluta. What was dark 

 to him, modern discovery enlightened for the later phi- 

 losophers: they have convinced us that the light did not 

 shine in vain; and to them we owe a distribution of 

 the Linnean Volutae into genera, which appear to form 

 more natural associations. 



The genus Voluta of Lamarck, has been still further 

 reduced by the author of this sketch, by taking from it 

 the genera Cymba and Melo ; and the crowd of species 

 which are still ranked under our genus will, it is sub- 

 mitted, afford to those who study the subject, pregnant 

 evidence that even a further division will soon be called 

 for. Take, for example, Voluta imperialis and V. lyri- 

 formis, and we shall find some difficulty in satisfying the 

 enquirer that they are species of the same genus. In the 

 present state of the science, it is however only proposed 

 thus to subdivide the genus: 



Papilla grandi, laevi, 

 Coronatae 



Exemp. Voluta imperialis, (Icon. Encyc. Method, 

 tab. 382. fig. 1.) 



Inermes. 



Exemp. V, Scapha (Encyc. Method, tab. 391.) 



