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Cyrena Duchastelii, Nyst : 1838. The following marine shells occur mixed with the freshwater species above enumerated: Buccinum undatum, Littorina littorea, Nassa reticulata, Purpura lapillus, Tellina solidula, Cardium edule, and fragments of some others.
Cuming and Hinds have found, on the comparison of nearly two thousand living species from the opposite sides of South America, only one in common, namely, the Purpura lapillus from both sides of the Isthmus of Panama: even the shells collected by myself amongst the Chonos Islands and on the coast of Patagonia, are dissimilar, and we must descend to the apex of the continent, to Tierra del Fuego, to find these two great conchological provinces united into one.
Four existing species have been regarded as more or less employed in the manufacture, and it seems to be certain, at any rate, that the Phoenicians derived the dye from more shell-fish than one. The four are the Buccinum lapillus of Pliny, which is the Purpura lapillus of modern naturalists; the Murex trunculus; the Murex brandaris; and the Helix ianthina.
The Purpura employed seems to have been the P. lapillus, a mollusc not confined to the Mediterranean, but one which frequents also our own shores, and was once turned to some account in Ireland. The varieties of the P. lapillus differ considerably. Some are nearly white, some greyish, others buff striped with brown. Some, again, are smooth, others nearly as rough as the Murex trunculus.
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