This note is meant to clear up some possible confusion with respect to the arrangement of plates in the four volumes of Chenu's "Illustrations Conchyliologiques" (1842-1853) which I had mentioned in a contribution last week. Gary Rosenberg remarked that the plates of the Naticidae which I has stated to be in volume 4 were actually in volume 1 according to Sherborn, and were in volume 3 of the set Gary had consulted at the ANSP. At first glance this may appear to be a strange thing, discussing the exact position of a plate within a multi-volume work. However, in the old days books were often issued in several parts over a long period of time, with the parts later on being collated by the binder into volumes. In most cases instructions were provided to the binder as to which parts should be bound together. However, in some cases no such instructions were issued, so every book binder was free to come up with his own idea of how to arrange the various parts. Particulary in those cases where plates were not numbered consecutively, they could be arranged according to publication date, or alphabetically by some key word in the plate legend, or according to some taxonomic system. The "Illustrations Conchyliologiques" obviously have been bound in various different ways. Sherborn in the Index Animalium cites the Natica species as being published in volume 1. The first collation of the many parts of this work later was reported by Sherborn & Smith in 1911 (Proc. Malacol. Soc. Lond. 9, 264-267). They cited pls. 2 and 3 of the genus Natica as published in 1843, with parts 12/13 of the work, and plate 4 of Natica with parts 18/19, also published in 1843. However, they did not mention any specific organization of the 85 parts into four volumes. Probably, they were aware of the fact that different sets had different arrangements. Richard I. Johnson in 1963 then published a paper entitled "The arrangement and contents of the genera described in J.C. Chenu's "Illustrations Conchyliologiques" (J. Soc. Bibl. Nat. Hist. 4, 92-95). He reported on 88 parts, and listed the arrangement of the copy in the British Museum where the Natica plates appear in volume 3. He also mentions a personal copy of this work in which the genera are arranged alphabetically, and in which the Natica plates appear in volume 2. The set I quoted when I discussed the status of N. delessertiana last week is the set kept at the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington. In this set the Natica plates are bound in volume 4, the last volume of the set. The reason for this might have been the fact that these plates had been issued without any descriptive text, and therefore might have been moved to the end of the set by the binder. In conclusion, the Natica plates may appear in each of the 4 volumes of this work. It would be best not to refer to a volume number at all, but rather to the name of the first genus appearing in the legend of the plate and the plate number (plates were numbered, though not consecutively, but rather within each genus). Michael Hollmann ****************************************** Dr. Michael Hollmann Goerdelerweg 17 D-37075 Goettingen GERMANY Tel.: (home) (49)-551-22356 Tel.: (work) (49)-551-3899-437 FAX: (work) (49)-551-3899-644 e-mail: [log in to unmask] ****