1854.] 241 



ris Raf. But, in the following year, June 1836, in his " Monography of the Family 

 Unionida" p. 41, Mr. Conrad describes and figures mytiloides Rat. as a type, and 

 assigns to it as synonyms ruber Raf. pyramidatus Lea, and cardiacea " Say of 

 Guerin," and in his observations on this shell, now first considered by him to be 

 a species, he says, " this common species, since its first discovery in the Western 

 waters, has always been known by the name we have adopted"!* After these 

 three attempts one might reasonably conclude that the synonymy of triangularis 

 was perfectly settled to the satisfaction of the author of the Synopsis, but such 

 proved far from being the case. Seventeen years of further experience found Mr. 

 liafinesque's species " marked by his own hand," did not make his own species 

 right, and we have in Mr. Conrad's Synopsis of 1853, a remodelling of these names 

 of the most extraordinary kind. Triangularis which in 1834 was declared to be 

 a type with six synonyms is entirely dismissed, not recognized even as a synonym. 

 Lateralis, which then was pronounced to be a synonym to it, has also been dis- 

 missed. Pachostea, another of the synonyms, but which was in 1835 raised to 

 the rank of a type, is sunk into the same oblivion. Mytiloides which had been in 

 1836 raised to a species, from a synonym in 1834 to triangularis, and in 1835 

 changed to a synonym to clavus Lam., is continued a synonym to clavus, with 

 some entirely new companions, viz., scalenius Raf. cuneaius Raf. and modiolifor- 

 mis Say. We find sintozia which had remained for nineteen years, during all the 

 changes, a synonym to triangularis is now decided to be a species, and it assumes 

 that rank without any synonym. Ruber is once more considered to be a species. 

 It was in the Synopsis of 1834 pronounced to be a synonym to triangularis Raf. 

 In 1835 it was considered a species, and pyramidatus Lea assigned as a synonym 

 to it. In 1836 it was degraded to the rank of synonymy again, and had myti- 

 loides Raf. for its type. In 1853 we find it again promoted to the rank of a spe- 

 cies, with pyramidatus Lea, and coccineus Jay, as synonyms ! And will it be be- 

 lieved, after all these various attempts to "rectify" what was pronounced with 

 so much formality to be the object of the writer, and to "render strict justice to 

 every author," that he says, in a supplementary note, on this U. triangularis Raf. 

 in this Synopsis (p. 267) that " Mr. Poulson's cabinet contains no authentic speci- 

 men of this species, which is one I have never identified." What must we think 

 of such an admission? In 1834 he forms a Sjmopsis under the declaration that 

 he has at his command the specimens marked by Rafinesque himself. In this 

 Synopsis he declares triangularis Raf. to be a species with six synonyms. Through 

 the course of three years he separates from these synonyms three of them, which 

 he raises to the rank of species, and then at the end of nineteen years, he drops 

 the important type entirely, and candidly informs us in a note that it is a species 

 he "had never identified !" and in the same note he says that u pachostea, CUfford- 

 iania and lateralis are also uncertain species." 



It will strengthen the evidence of the utter futility to attempt the establishment 

 of Rafinesque's species, by looking at Mr. Say's Synopsis, which had the same object 

 in view. He declares this U. triangularis Raf. to be a distinct species, and assigns 

 to it as a synonym U. ellipsis Lea.f and he pronounced my HI tides Raf. a species 

 which Mr. Conrad at the same time placed as a synonym to triangularis Raf.f 



. _ _ __ _ . 1 . 



* Subsequently it will be seen that this species is degraded in the synopsis of 

 1853 again into the ranks of synonymy. 1 believe I was the first to give it a 

 place (1829) in the lists made to endeavor to throw light on the subject, and I 

 continued it in the various editions of my Synopsis in 1836, 1838 and. 1852, more 

 because a certain triangular shell was generally known to us under this name of 

 Rafinesque's, than that his description really fitted it. 



f Mr. Say had previously, in his American Conchology 1831, considered U. ellip- 

 sis Lea, as being established, and he had figured and described it as mine. 



X If it were necessary to have further evidence of the uncertainty of Rafin- 

 esque's species, we might trace another of these numerous discrepancies, taking 

 scalenius. Mr. Conrad in his Synopsis 1834 gives scalenius the rank of a species, 

 giving as synonyms cuneaius Raf. &ndpatulus Lea. In his appendix 1835 he makes 

 scalenius Raf. and modiobformis Say. synonyms to clavus Lam. In 1838, Mono- 

 graphy p. 92, he describes and figures patulus Lea., making it a distinct species, 

 and in his Synopsis 1853 he adds mytiloides to the synonym of clavus Lam., having 

 in 1836 considered mytiloides a distinct species, but he is still not sure tha.tcunea.tu4 



