Pinna

Pinna, a genus of bivalves, not far removed from mussels (Mytilidæ). The shell is acutely triangular, beautifully translucent, and in some species measures two feet in length. The attaching byssus, especially of the Mediterranean species (P. nobilis), is very long and silky, and admits of being woven into fabrics. So the ancients occasionally used it, and, to gratify the curious, byssus-gloves, &c. are still made at Taranto and elsewhere. The animal is sometimes eaten. It lives from low-water to sixty fathoms.