Pvn H,i I'UitlS

of Born,
LIMA. 87
and the L. reticulata of Leach. The L. Los-
combea of the last-named author, from Torbay, is in all
probability the young of the present species ; but his
considers Turton's
diagnosis is very obscure. Philippi
L. bullata to be the L. strigilata of Scacchi but not the
Ostrea striyilata of Brocchi. The latter is a common
miocene fossil, and constitutes the type of Bronn's
genus Limea.
5. L. hi'ans*, Gmelin.
Ostrea kians, Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Is at. ed.xiii. p. 3332. L. Mans, F. & H.
ii. p. 268, pi. lii. f. 3-5, and (animal) pi. E, as L. tcnera.
Body of different shades of colour between pale crimson and
intense vermilion : mantle of an orange tint : tentacles very
numerous, arranged in rows as in the last species : foot also
similar.
Shell rhomboidal, considerably
twisted to the ventral or
anterior side, compressed, rather solid, of a dull aspect : sculpture
nearly the same as that of L. LoseomLii ; but the ribs are
stronger, and often become coarse and rough
towards the
margins : colour snow-white in the young, but dirty-brown in
old specimens, which are frequently covered with fragments
of byssal hairs, as well as with zoophytes and Foraminifera :
margins thick, oblique, bluntly rounded in front, the ventral
or anterior edge compressed and nearly straight, and the posterior
edge truncate and sloping outwards at the same angle
with the lower margin of that side as in the last species ; the
valves when closed gape very widely on both sides : heals
prominent and gibbous, not projecting much beyond the hinge :
ears triangular, strong, and unequal, that on the anterior side
being longer and wider than the other, which is sharp-pointed;
both are coarsely wrinkled in the line of growth : cartilage
and ligament large, horncolour : hinge-line formed like an arch,
and increasing with age in the degree of curvature ;
its length
is not equal to one-third of the entire breadth of the shell :
hinge-plate thick, incurved in the middle to receive the carti-
lage : cartilage-area very large, causing the beaks to be widely
separated when the valves are closed ; triangular space
on the
anterior side indistinct, but that on the other side is deeply
* Gaping.