Few Volutes can exceed this in elegance or beauty. The peculiarity of its markings, resembling the national colours of Holland, has procured it the name of the Orange-flag Volute. Although long known to Conchologists, it still continues a rare shell to our cabinets, and is much sought for on the continent, particular among the collectors in Holland; they view it with something of a national fondness, and value it at a high price. It is brought from Amboyna, and some other islands of the Indian Ocean. The many-plaited Volutes, form one of the most natural groups in the whole department of Conchology; and one which the most unpractised student will have no difficulty in understanding. The more experienced Conchologist, in studying its contents, will detect some very extraordinary and beautiful analogies. It contains, in fact, representations of all the principal divisions of the old genus Voluta, and also of the corresponding groups among the Mitras; to which sub-family it forms the true passage. We feel some hesitation, however, in regard to the second type; or that which must lead immediately to _Volutilithes_; as we rather suspect that the true type, or more properly the annectant form, by which this union is effected, has not yet been discovered. We share also in Mr. Broderips doubts, regarding the situation of his _V. dubia_. * * * * * * [Illustration: OLIVÆ PL. 3. _Hiatula Lamarci 2. pallida. 3. maculata._] OLIVÆ. Pl. 3. _The Wide-mouthed Olives._ ---- Family Volutidæ. Genus Oliva. _Nob._ SUB-GENUS HIATULA. _Nob._ Suture channelled. Pillar above smooth, not thickened, beneath tumid, and marked with a few oblique plaits: base of the aperture very wide. ---- SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Hiatula Lamarci. _Fulvous brown: pillar white, with about four lengthened plaits, and intermediate shortened ones between them, inner margin of the lip brown._ Fig. 1. H. pallida. _Aperture and base of the pillar livid brown: plaits 4-5, simple, equal; inner margin of the lip pale._ Fig. 2. H. maculosa. _Aperture orange, marked above with a black spot: base of the pillar white, the plaits small, crowded, and of unequal length._ Fig. 3. Mus. Nost. ---- As the connection of the Olives with the Mitres has been illustrated in a former number, we now characterize the sub-genus by which the former are united to the _Ancillariæ_. The thickened and oblique plaits on the pillar, its smoothness on the upper part, and the great width of the aperture, are all characters which render this affinity unquestionable, and detach the group from the more common and typical Olives before alluded to.