73 
SERPULA, Linn • 
Gen. Char. Univalve, adherent, tubular, variously 
curved. Aperture round. 
SERPULA crassa* 
TAB. XXX. 
Spec. Char. Shell acutely conical, round within,, 
three-sided externally, about four times as long 
as the diameter of the end at the aperture. 
About an inch long, and one-fifth diameter at the mouth, 
the edges slightly waved, two of them attached to the sub- 
stance the tube adheres to. Animal with a stellated bony 
termination to the proboscis. 
This Highgate specimen is peculiarly interesting and 
important, inasmuch as it appears to be the first specimen 
of the kind noticed or perhaps found, and as it leads to the 
more attentive investigation of the recent species, the stel- 
lated organ that terminates the proboscis being preserved, 
and apparently serving as an occasional cover or operculum. 
I had not seen this stellated organ in the recent or living 
species till about half a year after I possessed this specimen, 
when upon a visit to Dr. Leach * (to whom the world is 
likely to be greatly indebted for the learning and assiduity 
he bestows upon particular departments of Natural History) 
* Although this was the only specimen yet known to him or me, 
Dr. Leach was so generous as to insist on my acceptance of it to elucidate 
my Highgate specimen. 
