185 
tellinoides porosa Icevis, and is thus spoken of by this writer :* — “ Ex 
plurimis conchis lapideis atque conchitis in Helvetia passim reperiun- 
dis, quorum descriptionem Operi ipsi Historico-Helvetico-Naturali 
reservo, aliquos duntaxat sisto, rariores scilicet, et ab aliis non, vel 
obscure descriptos, quos inter prim inn commemoro Cone ham fossilem 
Tellinoidem, ita mihi nuncupatam quia cava est, sui similem marinam, 
plane reprassentans, et Tellinas formam rhomboidalem exprimit ; ab 
una cardinis parte, eaque nunc dextra, nunc sinistra (unde non uni- 
valvem, sed bivalvem quoque dari, vel primitus fuisse conjicio) longius 
excurrit alterutrum latus, idque recta prorsus linea, dum latus brevius 
nunc sese incurvat, nunc, et plerumque, rotundat. Structuram quod 
attinet, est ea rara admodum, porosa, , poris non in superficie 
tantiim conspicuis, sed totam eamque insignem crassitiem perforanti- 
bus, eo plane modo, quo astroitarum pori et stellulae totam plerumque 
massam penetrant. Cavitas interna est laevis, et tamen lineis ab uno 
latere ad alterum transversim excurrentibus notata. — Caeterum friabilis 
est et ita fragilis ut rarissime reperiatur integra, nunquam prorsus 
bivalvis, et ideo lapidis nomen vix promereatur, nisi porosioribus et 
mollioribus accensere illam velis. Habeo et frustulum concha; vio- 
lentia quadam contort® seu compress®. Color plerumque est cinereus, 
aliquando subpurpureus, et rubiginosus.” 
M. Walch says very little respecting this curious fossil. M. Bertrand, 
with M. Davila, suspected these fossils to be the valves of a shell re- 
sembling Lepas anatifa ; forming their conclusions on the accordance 
of their figure with that of the valves of the Lepas, and on the two valves 
not being found together, as they think would be the case if the shell was 
a bivalve. Baier, however, has engraved six or seven specimens in which 
the two valves have been found together, although open. Monum rer. 
petrif. Tab. xiv. This author considers these shells as Chamce and 
Te liens ; even referring one species to T. rostrata, Linn. Neither 
Lamarck nor Faujas St. Fond have made any mention of this shell. 
* Specimen Lithog. Helvet. p. 21. 
VOL. III. 
B B 
