SCALARIA, 
Gen. Char. An univalve turreted shell, with sharp 
longitudinal raised ribs. Aperture nearly cir- 
cular,, with an uninterrupted bordered and re- 
flected margin. 
SC A LARI A similis. 
TAB, XVI. — Two upper figures . 
Spec. Char. Whorles contiguous, spire with five 
or six rounded transverse elevations, close to 
each other, and somewhat decussated, the lowest 
most prominent. Ribs distant^ circular. 
Ijength an inch and an half, greatest width about half an 
inch. Volutions about seven. 
I received the first specimen of this shell from Bramerton , 
near Norwich, a few years since; in 1812, Mrs. Cobbold 
favoured me with the same species found by herself at 
Holy wells, near Ipswich. I do not know that more than 
one or two, nearly perfect specimens, have been found, 
neither have I learnt that it has been met with elsewhere. 
It is so like the Turbo clathrus of Linnaeus (now Scalaria 
of Lamarck), that we have but one strong character to 
distinguish it by, the round transverse elevations. The 
specimens are generally so brittle, that they are apt to fall 
to pieces by being moved from a moderate temperature into 
an hand a little warmer, when they usually separate at one 
of the ribs, so neatly as not to spoil the contour of the shell, 
as they only appear smaller in proportion to the number of 
ribs separated. I call it similis from its resemblance to the 
Linnaean species, and one figured in the Annales du museum, 
which is there called Scalaria decussata, the mouth of which 
is, however, drawn much smaller, though this may possibly 
be some mistake of the draughtsman or engraver. 
