Var. angustus (Gmelin) Pl. [5], fig. [1 a]: pale dull purple or white; orifice small or of moderate size; radii very narrow or moderately wide, white or pale purple, with oblique summits.
Var. Cranchii (Leach) Pl. [5], fig. [1 b]: corroded, covered with fine longitudinal ridges owing to the exposed, filled-up, parietal tubes; dark dirty ash-colour, with a tinge of purple: radii not developed, or very narrow with oblique summits; orifice small.
Var. fistulosus (Poli) Pl. [5], fig. [1 d]: shell cylindrical, white or dull purple; orifice of moderate size or small; basis deeply cup-formed.
Var. mirabilis, Pl. [5], fig. [1 c]: bright purple; radii white, very broad, with their summits parallel to the basis; orifice entire, large.
Hab.—Southern shores of England; South Wales; Mediterranean; Western Africa, southward to Loanda, in 9° S.; West Indies (?). Generally adhering to rocks at a low tidal level; in one case attached to the floating Lepas Hillii, Mus. Jeffreys.
This is a well-marked species, and in its essential characters does not vary much; but owing to the shell being almost as often white as purple,—to its being remarkably subject to disintegration,—to its often becoming cylindrical,—to the radii being either not at all, or slightly, or moderately, or largely developed, and consequently to the orifice of the shell varying in size, the general external appearance of the different varieties is singularly diversified; but when a series of specimens is examined, it is easy to see how one form passes into another.
General Appearance.—Shell conical, with the orifice oval, unusually small, being generally only from one third to half of the basal diameter; sometimes moderately large; in one single instance as wide as the basis. Radii, often represented by mere lineal fissures, or they are narrow, or sometimes moderately wide. Colour pale, dull purple, sometimes lilac, often passing into a dead pure white: the same individual will occasionally have one part of its shell white, and another purple: the purple tint almost invariably is nearly uniform, or not in stripes. The radii are generally white, when the whole shell is purple, but sometimes they are pale purple: the sheath is apparently always coloured of a fine claret-purple, with the triangular portion of the alæ, added during diametric growth, generally white, but sometimes purple. The surface is quite smooth, but very often, especially on the shores of England, whole groups of specimens (excepting the very young ones,) have had the outer lamina of the parietes entirely corroded and removed; in this case the shell assumes a dirty, more or less dark, ash-colour, feebly tinted with purple, and the whole surface, owing to the exposure of the solidly filled-up parietal tubes, becomes finely striated, or covered with very narrow, longitudinal ridges. When specimens are crowded together they often become cylindrical, and much elongated, owing to the basis becoming deeply cup-formed: I have seen specimens, half an inch in diameter in the widest part, one inch and a half in height, the walls forming only a third of this. The largest specimen which I have seen (from the southern shores of England) had a basal diameter of 1.2 of an inch; some very steeply conical specimens were .9 of an inch in height, and .8 in basal diameter.
Scuta, externally, slightly convex; growth-ridges approximate, moderately prominent. Internally (Pl. [4], fig. [3 a]) the articular ridge is moderately developed, with the lower end produced downwards into a freely depending, flattened style, somewhat variable in size, but not so long as in [B. lævis], and easily broken in disarticulating the valves. The adductor ridge is very prominent, running from almost the apex of the valve, close to the articular ridge, to near the basal margin. The basi-tergal portion of the valve is converted by the adductor ridge into a rather deep cavity, within which there is a short, sharp, and minute ridge, close and parallel to the adductor ridge, and bounding the impression left by the lateral depressor muscle: this insignificant ridge was present in every specimen; it occurs only in very few other species, as in [B. nubilus] and [cariosus]. The thickness of the valve sometimes varies a little, and when thick the adductor ridge does not appear quite so prominent. Tergum, with the apex moderately beaked and produced; beak triangular in section, coloured dark purple, as is the upper internal surface of the valve; the longitudinal furrow is deep, and has its edges folded in, and even quite closed. The spur is moderately long and narrow; but its width varies a little (Pl. [4], fig. [3 b], [3 c]), and consequently it stands at either rather above or at twice its own breadth from the basi-scutal angle: its lower end is either bluntly pointed or square, and generally is feebly toothed on the under-side. The basal margin of the valve generally slopes a little, on both sides, towards the spur. Internally, the scutal margin is but slightly inflected: the articular ridge is but slightly prominent, and but little curved; in the upper part of the valve there are generally several very minute ridges, parallel to the articular ridge, on the side towards the scutum. The internal surface of the spur itself is sometimes concave. The crests for the carinal depressor muscle are barely developed. It may here be mentioned that on the opercular membrane many long spines stand rudely arranged in rows.
Parietes: the parietal tubes have not transverse septa; but are solidly filled up in their upper parts by dark-purple layers of shell. The radii, as already stated, are either not at all developed, or are extremely or only moderately narrow, with their summits more or less oblique: in Mr. Cuming’s collection, however, there is an unique specimen, var. mirabilis (Pl. [5], fig. [1 c]) with the aperture of the shell as wide as the basis, with bright purple parietes, and white, very broad radii, having their summits parallel to the basis. The septa of the radii are finely denticulated, and the interspaces are filled up solidly. The alæ have very oblique summits, and their edges are finely crenated. Basis, flat, or deeply cup-shaped; there is often an underlying, coarsely-cancellated layer.