14 
GERVILLIA solenoides. 
TAB. D X.—Jigs. 1 to 4. 
Spec. Char. Transversely much elongated,, depress- 
ed,, smooth ; edges parallel ; anterior extre- 
mity truncated^ open; teeth of the hinge nu- 
merous,, variously disposed. 
Syn. Gervillie solenoide. Def ranee, Diet. desScienc. 
Nat. 18. p. 503. cahier 16. pi. 18./. 4. 
Gervillia solenoides. Eudes-Deslonchamps, 
Mem . de la So c . Linn .duCalvados, 1 824 .p . 1 29 . 
A long, narrow, slightly curved shell ; the hinge con- 
tains about four depressions for the reception of the li- 
gament : the teeth within are irregular and linear ; those 
on the anterior extremity are most elevated and placed 
perpendicular to the hinge line ; the others are in the 
same direction with it, and often curved : the anterior ex- 
tremity appears to be open, perhaps for a byssus ; the 
other we have not seen. The shell is at least eight times 
as wide as it is long. 
Many imperfect casts of this extremely curious shell 
were collected in 1818 at Shanklin Chine in the Isle of 
Wight by my father, in the lowest ferruginous beds of 
the Green-sand (fig. 2. and 3.); and immediately identified 
with casts from Normandy, which he had received from 
his highly valued correspondent Mons. de Gerville. The 
discovery of the same fossil, with a portion of the shell 
preserved (fig. 1.), in the lowest beds of Green-sand near 
Lyme Regis, by H. T. De la Beche, Esq., has induced 
me to figure it ; and for illustration I have added two 
figures taken from specimens picked up at Fresville by 
Mons. de Gerville (fig. 4.). Many of the fossils which ac- 
company the same rock with this in Normandy, are un- 
known in any English stratum ; others correspond with 
those of the Green-sand ; and some with Chalk fossils, — 
a circumstance that may give rise to much speculation. 
