Pvn H,i I'UitlS

326 VENER1DJE.
Genus I. VENUS *, Linne. PI. VI. f. 5.
Body suborbicular or oval : mantle having its edges fringed
or cirrous : tubes more or less united.
Shell triangular, solid, fluted or ribbed concentrically,
sometimes cancellated, or else nearly smooth: lunule heart-
shaped or lanceolate : teeth, three or four strong and divergent
cardinals, besides the typical lateral in each valve.
The name of this genus conjures up an idea of beauty,
which is fully realized by contemplating the graceful
form of the shells comprised in it. Whatever the case
may be with regard to Diatoms and other low types of
vegetable life, there is no angularity in the outline of
animal organisms. Everyone of these objects is "teres
atque rotundus," and offers a striking contrast to the
stiff and often inelegant works of man. I do not share
Herrick's avowal,
" I must confess mine eye a,nd heart
Dote less on Nature than on art."
To enhance the charm of a rounded contour in the
shells of Mollusca, each part is repeated in the Bra-
chiopoda and Conchifera by valves resembling the cover
of a clasped book, in many of the Pteropoda and most
of the Gasteropoda by a succession of similarly shaped
whorls arranged spirally on a common axis, and in the
Cephalopoda by a series of cells or imbricated plates.
The same principle of repetition is followed in the
of each mollusk : it has a
organization of the body
double mantle, two wing-like expansions, one or two
pairs of tentacles,
or a circle of feet armed with rows of
suckers. An harmonious symmetry pervades the whole.
Although I do not think there are sufficient grounds,
as regards the British Mollusca, for any dismember-
* The Goddess of Love.