Pvn H,i I'UitlS

axinus. 249
It is widely distributed through the North Atlantic
from Spitzbergen (Torell) to the Canary Isles (M'Andrew),
and likewise through the Mediterranean and
JEgean. The greatest bathymetrical limit recorded is
that by Danielssen, viz. 180 fathoms, at Vadso in Fin-
mark. "Postglacial"
beds in the Christiania diocese
(Sars). Gould has described it as a Massachusetts
shell ; but in a review of his work by Philippi, in the
'
Zeitschrift '
for 1846, the North-American species is
stated to differ in several respects from ours, and the
name Lucina Gouldii was therefore given to it. Morch
refers the Greenland shell to this last species, and says
it is the Tyatira hyalina of Beck. I confess that I have
not been able to make out anything more than a varietal
difference between the Greenland specimens and those
of A. flexnosus from our own seas.
Young shells are globular, and the principal fold on
the posterior side is visible in every stage of growth.
The liver is of a beautiful purple colour. The attachment
of the ligament to the hinge is slight, which
accounts for single valves being so frequently thrown
up on the shore, or taken by the dredge in sandy bays.
Lamarck described this species in his (
Histoire na-
turelle des Animaux sans Vertebres/ both as Amphidesma
fleoniosa and Lucina sinuata. It is the Crypt odon
bisinuatum of S. Wood's Catalogue, and the Pty china
biplicata (afterwards changed to Axinus sinuatus) of
Philippi. The Venus sinuosa of Pennant and Donovan
(thus characterized, "Thin, convex, a deep
obtuse sinus
or bending in the front") appears to be Thracia distorta,
which is often contracted in this way ; and Donovan's
figure confirms that idea. S. Wood, however, considered
The A. Sarsii of
it identical with the present species.
Philippi, described by Loven in his admirable '
m 5
Index