2 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
lip of a rich; dark chocolate -brown ; in variety hortensis 
mouth has a white lip. Colours various ; yellow^ yellow 
with brown bands^ pink, pink and brown, dark choco- 
late, with darker bands of the same colour, and white. 
Helix pisana, Linnseus. The Banded Snail . — Shell 
rather depressed and nearly globular, of a pale yellow- 
ish-white, with spiral bands of a dark chocolate- brown, 
which are not always joined together, giving the shell a 
speckled or streaky appearance; whorls 5 or 5^ ; mouth 
pink, and rather large. Varieties nearly white, and also 
others with the bands of a chestnut-colour, and scarcely 
to be distinguished. 
Helix pomatia is the largest of our land snails, being 
about 1| inches in breadth and length, and is found in 
Kent, Surrey, Gloucestershire, and other southern coun- 
ties; and a specimen was met with some time since in a 
lane near Exmouth, which I believe to be a new locality for 
it. Some curious reversed specimens are occasionally found 
in France, and one variety particularly struck me, which 
Avas exhibited in the Museum at the Jardin des Plantes, 
in Paris. It was something the shape of a Buccinum, 
the whorls rounded and swollen, and six in number. A 
beautiful white variety is also found, but rarely, in the 
environs of Clermont. It is supposed by some to have 
been originally introduced into England by Sir Kenelm 
Digby, as food or medicine for his wife, who was suf- 
fering from consumption ; others say that the Romans 
introduced it; but Mr. Jeffreys believes it to be indi- 
genous, and observes (in his ^British Conchology^) 
^Ghat it is not found in many parts of England and 
Wales where the Romans built cities or had important 
military stations.^^ 
Archaeologists often find snail-shells in great abun- 
