On the other hand, to certain of the shell-fish of Phoenicia a great celebrity attaches. The purple dye which gave to the textile fabrics of the Phoenicians a world-wide reputation was prepared from certain shell-fish which abounded upon their coast. 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,[285] which is the _Purpura lapillus_ of modern naturalists; the _Murex trunculus_; the _Murex brandaris_; and the _Helix ianthina_. The Buccinum derives its name from the form of the shell, which has a wide mouth, like that of a trumpet, and which after one or two twists terminates in a pointed head.[286] The _Murex trunculus_ has the same general form as the Buccinum; but the shell is more rough and spinous, being armed with a number of long thin projections which terminate in a sharp point.[287] The _Murex brandaris_ is a closely allied species, and “one of the most plentiful on the Phoenician coast.”[288] It is unlikely that the ancients regarded it as a different shell from _Murex trunculus_. The _Helix ianthina_ has a wholly different character. It is a sort of sea-snail, as the name _helix_ implies, is perfectly smooth, “very delicate and fragile, and not more than about three-quarters of an inch in diameter.”[289] All these shell-fish contain a _sac_ or bag full of colouring matter, which is capable of being used as a dye. It is quite possible that they were all, more or less, made use of by the Phoenician dyers; but the evidence furnished by existing remains on the Tyrian coast is strongly in favour of the _Murex brandaris_ as the species principally employed.[290]