/ 



MITRA. 



TESTA elongata, acuta, spira longitudinem 

 aperturse plerumque superante; aperture basi 

 emargioata; canali brevi; columella plicata, 

 plicis inferioi'ibus minoribus. 



Onk of the very distinct genera that had lonj;' been united 

 with Olwa and f^obimheUa under tlie Linnean g^enus Fbluta, 

 but which has been judiciously separated by late authors. 

 Its characters, indeed, rendered it so obviously distinct 

 from the genuine Volutae, that farmer writers had also 

 raised it to the rank of a genus which it deservedly 

 holds. Of all the genera, with which it was originally 

 united, it is not in danger of being confounded with any, 

 except, first, with Marginella, on account of similarity iii 

 the plaits of the columella, but it may be known by the 

 characters of the outer lip, which in Marginella is 

 thickened at the edge and reflected ; secondly, with 

 Columbella, to which indeed some of the species seem to 

 lead by almost imperceptible degrees; there is however 

 one circumstance by which they may be distinguished; 

 namely, the regular plicae on the columella of the Mitres. 

 This may be rciiarded as the essential character of the 

 genus Mitra, by which it is also distinguished from the 

 Lamarckian Volutes. 



A late Author, to whom the Scientific Public are much 

 indebted for one of the best executed works, connected 

 with the illustration of Zoology, has separated a few small 

 species from the Lamarckian Mitres, on account of their 

 conical form, under the generic appellation of Conohelix. 

 We cannot accede to this separation, because, the diffe- 

 rence is only in general form and is altogether so slight 

 that we cannot tell to which of the two genera, if they 

 were separated^ certain species must be referred ; the 



