308 POPULAR CONCHOLOGY. 



Posydoxomya. Br 07171. — Shell equivalve, inequila- 

 teral, obliquely long, thin, outside, and internally concen- 

 trically wrinkled : hinge edge straight before and behind, 

 with slightly projecting knobs, and having no notch. — 

 Fossil. 



Malleus. Lam. Tudes Oken. : Himantopoda Schum.) 

 — Shell irregular, variously distorted, nearly equivalve ; 

 hinge margin generally very long, extended out into two 



Malleus vulgaris. 



ears ; no teeth, but a conical pit under the boss, which 

 contains part of the ligament ; an oblique notch for the 

 passage of the byssus, near the boss. A7ii77ial unknown. 

 — 6 species. 



The Malleus is a native of the Indian Ocean : it at- 

 taches itself by a byssus to submarine rocks. The form 

 of these shells is so very various, that scarcely two of a 

 species can be found alike, the rarity of some causing 

 them to be very valuable, and much sought after. Ex- 



