348 Miscellaneous. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



ON A FISH ALLIED TO LEPIDOSIREN ANNECTENS. 



At the sitting of the Berlin Academy on the 5th of December 1844, 

 Prof. Muller presented a communication from Dr. Peters, " On a fish 

 from the Quellimane marshes provided with both lungs and gills, re- 

 lated to Lepidosiren annectens." 



This animal, which resides during the dry season in a cavity 

 formed in the earth and lined with leaves, resembles the Lepidosiren 

 annectens so completely in many points of its external and internal 

 organization, that Dr. Peters is inclined to regard these two animals 

 as identical, and to consider the distinguishing characters of the 

 latter as consequent on our still imperfect knowledge of it. The 

 composition of the skull, the vertebral column, the arches furnished 

 with and those not furnished with gills, the lungs, alimentary canal, 

 the generative organs, the brain, heart, external form, scales, and the 

 teeth are exactly as in the Lepidosiren annectens. The pectoral and 

 ventral fins, the labial cartilages, the perforated nostrils, and the 

 existence of external gill-filaments difi^er from what has been hitherto 

 described in the latter. 



The pectoral and ventral fins do not consist of merely a single ar- 

 ticulated member or ray, but also of cartilaginous rays, which ema- 

 nate from the inferior margin of the main limb or principal ray of 

 the fin, and to which still finer cartilaginous filaments are attached. 

 These rays are not extensions of the main limbs of the fin, but are 

 attached to it ; the length of the rays diminishes towards the end of 

 the main limb or principal ray of the fin until it becomes inappre- 

 ciable ; the extremities of the rays do not lie loosely upon the skin, 

 but the whole fin is covered by a prolongation of the skin, which also 

 covers the principal ray of the fin. In the pectoral fins, the beard of 

 the fin is as long as its ray. In the ventral fins, one-third of the 

 length of the ray is free at the base of the fin ; this then commences 

 very low and remains much lower than in the pectoral fins. In the 

 latter the beard of the fin external to the ray is 3 lines broad in 

 its widest part. This kind of formation of the fins, in which the rays 

 arise laterally from a main ray, is quite peculiar, and we have no other 

 example of it amongst fish except in the dorsal fin of Polypterus. 



The nostrils are double, and the posterior lies on the palatal side 

 of the upper lip, as in Lepidosiren paradoxa, the labial cartilage of 

 which is similarly placed. 



There are three gill-filaments above the thoracic fin behind the gill- 

 aperture ; they are not branched, and consequently appear like ten- 

 tacles ; they are placed closely together, one above the other. Two 

 are of equal length, being 4 lines long ; the third is the lowest, and 

 is much shorter. They are not present in the young specimens only, 

 but in all, even those which have attained the length of 2 feet. 



These filaments, which are somewhat broad and pointed at the ex- 

 tremity, are composed at their fore-part of a continuation of the 

 external skin of the animal ; the posterior part exhibits fine feathery 

 ramifications of blood-vessels. In the middle line of the posterior 



