Pvn H,i I'UitlS

VENUS. 33?
minute attached seed pearls. This shell, which I have
had figured as a representative of the genus, when u fresh
from the sea/' but not, like its mythological prototype,
" conscious of her beauty/' is indeed a lovely thing,
" Composed with Nature's finest care
And in her fondest love."
The elegance of its shape, the imbricated arrangement
of its sculpture, and the variety and brilliance of its
painting are unsurpassed in any other British bivalve.
Like many a wild flower, however, it is too common to
be thought much of.
There can be little doubt that this was the V. Paphia
of Linne, who says of it, in the twelfth edition of the
'
Systema Naturae/ " Habitat in O. Lusitanico" ; but
that name is now applied to a West- Indian shell. The
misnomer originated with Gmelin ; Pulteney
tagu in vain protested against
and Mon-
it. Brocchi called it V.
dysera, having mistaken it for a tropical species
so named
by Linne. The present species is the V. Brongniarti of
Payraudeau ; Bisso described it as V. biradiata, and by
other names ; and apparently the V. Dutninyi, V. Bus-
schaerdi, and V. Philippic of Bequien are also varieties
of our shell.
5. V. Casina"*, Linne.
V. Carina, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1130 ; F. & H. i. p. 405, pi. xxiv. f. 1, 5, 6.
Body thick and white (Forbes and Hanley).
Shell shaped like V. fasciata, but not so triangular ; it is
broader in front, nearly equally solid, and glossy : sculpture,
concentric imbricated ribs, which in some specimens are broad
and flattened, and in others sharp and foliaceous—now and
then slightly fimbriated, with very fine impressed parallel lines
in the interstices of the ribs— in other respects resembling
that of the last-mentioned species ; the whole surface is also
* A kind of Nymph :
or possibly as a fossil from Monte Casino.
Q