SOLEN.
15
white to brownish-yellow : mantle thick, protruded a little
beyond the valves of the shell ; edges plain : tubes contiguous
and nearly sessile; orifice of each fringed with tentacles or
cirri of different lengths, which are spotted with yellow or
flake -white : gills unequal in ^ size, the upper pair not being
half the depth of the lower pair : pcdj^s small, smooth outside
and pectinated within : foot tongue-shaped and flexible, lying
when at rest across the shell on the anterior side : liver green.
Shell usually sabre-shaped, but of various degrees of curvature, tapering to each extremity, scarcely transparent except
in young specimens, glossy and partiallj^ iridescent : sculpture^
numerous and fine but irregular striae in the line of growth,
and a few slight and minute longitudinal striae in the middle,
which radiate from the beaks to the front : colour yellowishwhite, with sometimes faint transverse streaks of salmoncolour : epidei'mis like oil-skin, yellowish-green or hght
orange, puckered by the radiating striae : margins gently curved
in front and almost straight behind, rounded at the anterior
end, and obliquely truncated at the other end ; dorsal area
apparently separated from the ventral part, in consequence of
the epidermis being thinner and of a paler hue behind : heahs
inconspicuous, incHning a little to the anterior side, which they
approach within one-fifth of the whole distance : ligament
lanceolate, yellowish-brown : hinge-line straight : hinge-plate
short, strengthened in each valve by a sHght rib to support
the ligament, and by a short and thicker rib at the other
end, which diverges inside towards the front anterior margin
teeth somewhat irregular; in the right valve an erect and
wedge-like cardinal, and in the left two similar cardinals,
which resemble a pair of nippers ; the posterior cardinal in the
left valve is often branched or forked ; each valve has a lateral
at no great distance from the cardinal teeth, of an irregular
shape, and bent towards each other, that in the right valve
being occasionally double : inside polished ; margin sharp
scars indistinct; pallial sinus short.
L. 0-4. B. 1-5.
Habitat : Gregarious in various parts of the British
seas, in sand (often mixed with mud), at depths of from
4 to 85 f.
In a fossil state it occurs at Belfast and
in the Coralline Crag ; and Philippi appears to have
recorded it from Palermo "^^ under the name of S. tenuis.
* In the preceding volume of this work I inadvertently mentioned
15
white to brownish-yellow : mantle thick, protruded a little
beyond the valves of the shell ; edges plain : tubes contiguous
and nearly sessile; orifice of each fringed with tentacles or
cirri of different lengths, which are spotted with yellow or
flake -white : gills unequal in ^ size, the upper pair not being
half the depth of the lower pair : pcdj^s small, smooth outside
and pectinated within : foot tongue-shaped and flexible, lying
when at rest across the shell on the anterior side : liver green.
Shell usually sabre-shaped, but of various degrees of curvature, tapering to each extremity, scarcely transparent except
in young specimens, glossy and partiallj^ iridescent : sculpture^
numerous and fine but irregular striae in the line of growth,
and a few slight and minute longitudinal striae in the middle,
which radiate from the beaks to the front : colour yellowishwhite, with sometimes faint transverse streaks of salmoncolour : epidei'mis like oil-skin, yellowish-green or hght
orange, puckered by the radiating striae : margins gently curved
in front and almost straight behind, rounded at the anterior
end, and obliquely truncated at the other end ; dorsal area
apparently separated from the ventral part, in consequence of
the epidermis being thinner and of a paler hue behind : heahs
inconspicuous, incHning a little to the anterior side, which they
approach within one-fifth of the whole distance : ligament
lanceolate, yellowish-brown : hinge-line straight : hinge-plate
short, strengthened in each valve by a sHght rib to support
the ligament, and by a short and thicker rib at the other
end, which diverges inside towards the front anterior margin
teeth somewhat irregular; in the right valve an erect and
wedge-like cardinal, and in the left two similar cardinals,
which resemble a pair of nippers ; the posterior cardinal in the
left valve is often branched or forked ; each valve has a lateral
at no great distance from the cardinal teeth, of an irregular
shape, and bent towards each other, that in the right valve
being occasionally double : inside polished ; margin sharp
scars indistinct; pallial sinus short.
L. 0-4. B. 1-5.
Habitat : Gregarious in various parts of the British
seas, in sand (often mixed with mud), at depths of from
4 to 85 f.
In a fossil state it occurs at Belfast and
in the Coralline Crag ; and Philippi appears to have
recorded it from Palermo "^^ under the name of S. tenuis.
* In the preceding volume of this work I inadvertently mentioned