INTRODUCTION. 
9 
the other is more or less deeply toothed, and at 
maturity both perhaps are angular and flat. The 
spire is then depressed, or rather retuso-umbilicate ; 
and the shells, having undergone as great a variety 
of changes in the painting as in the form, are at 
length recognised legitimate Cyprsese. Many Strombi 
have at first a great similarity to the genus Conus ; 
the winged or lobed lip is wanting ; the massy spines 
are merely tubercles ; the body of the shell, instead 
of being beset with them on all sides, is but slightly 
undulated, and the sutures are papillary or crenate. 
Sometimes, though the body and the spire be quite 
as large as in an adult specimen, there is not the 
slightest appearance of a tendency to lobes in the 
outer lip, and even the canal has the direction 
rather of a Buccinum or Murex, than of a Strombus : 
in such a case it is extremely difficult, without pre- 
vious information, to detect the specific character. 
The Murices have their spines and foliations formed 
regularly as the whorls increase, and it does not 
seem probable that they receive any further altera- 
tion, after their first construction. The spines, &c. 
usually increase in size in proportion to the diameter 
