This book is beautiful in its design and illustrations. More, it shows how the natural, semi-random, form of cowries can be modeled by, and generated from, mathematical equations (which are included in the book.) The original edition of the book included a diskette with computer programs to perform the modeling. In these days of the Internet, that's not necessary, but I'm absolutely certain (though without knowing) that you can download that material from Springer Verlag's website. So you can grow your own seashell in your computer.
As Max Beerbohm said, "For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like [very much!]"
