Pvn H,i I'UitlS

3.22 CYPRINID.E.
and the latter name has been adopted by Messrs. H.
and A. Adams,
in their '
Genera of Recent Shells/ under
the impression that it is different from Schumacher's
genus. It resembles Venus in many respects; but in
that genus the tubes are long, and the pallial scar on
the posterior side of the shell exhibits therefore a deep
fold or sinus. The typical species quoted by Schu-
macher is the Venus script a of Linne. It is somewhat
remarkable that our British shell [Circe minima) , which
Ulysses
'
of Salis Marschlins mentions in his Travels '
being found on the Neapolitan coast, was called by him
V. script a. The name Circe has been used by Mertens
for a genus of Acalephse ; but the gap is so wide between
the Ccelenterata and the Mollusca,
that there is little or
no risk of confusion in consequence of the same name
being applied to forms of animal life so diametrically
opposite, although it is unquestionably better in pro-
posing new genera to avoid »the possibility of such a
mistake.
The habits of Circe are generally cleaner than those
of Astarte, the present genus apparently preferring nul-
lipore and shelly sand to a muddy ground.
Circe mi'nima*, Montagu.
Venus minima, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 121, t. 3. f. 3. C. minima, F.&H. i.
p. 446, pi. xxvi. f. 4, 5, 6, 8, and (animal) pi. M. f. 3.
Body greyish-white, gelatinous: mantle slightly speckled
with brown :
tubes of unequal size ; marginal cirri numerous,
short and cylindrical, covered with specks of a brown-red or
purplish colour : foot white, extensile, and pointed.
Shell nearly circular or obtusely triangular, usually depressed
except towards the beaks, rather solid, opaque, and
glossy :
sculpture, numerous flat, broad, laminar concentric
* Smallest.
as