GENUS POLYPII EMUS, MOIlIf. (ACATIINIA. LAMARCK.) • Shell oblong ; aperture much longer than broad, perpendicular and parallel to the column ; lip not reflected ; columella gradually incurved towards the tip ; tip truncated.
P. glans. This shell furnished De Montfort with the type of his genus po lyphemus ; he refers to Bruguiere as the first describer of it, under the name of Bulimus glans, in the Encycl. Method. The animal has not been described, but we are informed that it lives in the im mense marshes formed by the overflow of the great rivers that water the vast country of Louisiana. In the sea-islands of Georgia we found them numerous in the marshy districts, immediately behind the sand-hills of the coast ; in Florida in similar situations, and also on the Oyster shell Hammocks, and generally in such situations as are tenanted by Succinea car/Testi-is. The colour of the shell on the spire is chesnut-brown, which gradually and very perceptibly becomes paler to the aperture, aperture occupying about half the length of the shell. On elevated
situations they were small, almost trans parent, and of a fragile consistence. It is only in low, marshy situations, that they attain their greatest size.
Length two inches and two-fifths breadth one inch nearly.
Animal elongated, as long again as the shell, granulated ; tentacula four, supe rior ones oculiferous, abruptly deflected at tip, beyond the eyes ; inferior ones much shorter, and abruptly deflected at tip ; lips beneath the tentacula, elon gated, palpiform, almost as long as the superior tentacula, retractile, generally more or less recurved, compressed, at. tenanted, and acute at tip, and forming a considerable interval between their pro minent bases.
When the animal is in motion, the elongated lips are used as tentacula to feel the way.