52 General Notes. 



A new subgenus for Nyctaginia Cockerellae. 



By the characters mentioned, Nyctaginia Cocker cll<te A. Nelson (Proc. 

 Biol. Soc., Washington, XVI, p. 29), seemed to me to differ gencrically, 

 but I am willing to follow Professor Nelson's decision to the contrary. 

 JV. Cockerellae forms, however, at least a distinct subgenus or section, 

 which may be called Roswellia.T. 1). A. Cockerdl 



On the name of the common American Eel 



The name of the common American eel is now generally conceded to 

 be Anguitta chrytypa Rafinesque, and the reference is given as " The 

 American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review, Vol. II, p. 120 (Dec., 

 1817)," the article in which it is contained being entitled "First Decade 

 of New North American Fishes, by C. S. Rafinesque. 7 ' 



Messrs. Jordan and Evermaun, in the "Fishes of North and Middle 

 America " (Bulletin 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. I, p. 348, 1890), give the 

 derivation as from ^pvtfo'S, gold, and vrto, below. But on referring to 

 the original article, we find that Rafinesque spells the word "chr-isypa," 

 the derivation for the word in this form being Y.pi6i<-, (from xpi** 1 ) mean 

 ing an anointing, a besmearing, and viro, below. In his account of the 

 eel, he gives the vernacular names, referring to it as "Gold-Eel, Silver- 

 Eel, Lake-Eel, Gold-Breast, etc." It is from this last mentioned name 

 that the confusion doubtless arose. 



Although there is no way of ascertaining which of these derivations is 

 correct, whether Rafinesque really meant to turn the name "Gold- 

 Breast " into Greek and made a slip, or whether he intended to refer to 

 the slimy character of the fish, it seems best to retain the original spell 

 ing as given by him, as it is just as plausible as that adopted, and we are 

 not now in a position to make really certain which idea he entertained, 

 as all that he has left us is the name chrisypa. 



As regards the name bostoniensis of Le Sueur, on looking up the refer 

 ence (Jour. Phil. Acad. I, p. 81) we find that it was given in a paper en 

 titled "A short description of five (supposed) new species of the genus 

 Mura&na discovered by Mr. Le Sueur in the year 1816," which was read 

 before the society on August 19th, 1817. As Rafinesque's name is dated 

 in his article December, 1817, bostoniensis would seem to have priority 

 over chrisypa. But we find that Le Sueur 's name was not published un 

 til 1821, whereas Rafinesque's appeared in 1817. 



Therefore, the name of the common American eel should stand as 

 Anyuilla chrisypa, Rafinesque. Austin H. Clark. 



