^V^ Dr Grant on the Structure and Characters of 



and is not to be found among the species of that animal described 

 by Lamarck, nor among those described by Cams, as occurring 

 in the Mediterranean. It possesses the characters of the genus 

 Octopus of Lamarck, but differs from his O. vulgaris and O. gra- 

 mdatus, in having only a single in place of a double row of 

 suckers on each arm. It differs from his O. cirrhosus, in ha- 

 ving the upper margin of the mantle fixed behind, and continu- 

 ous with the back of the head, in place of being free and de- 

 tached all round. And it differs from his only other species^ 

 the O. moschatus, in being entirely free from that remarkable 

 musky odour ascribed to that species by every author, and from 

 which it has received its specific name. Pennant has pretty ac- 

 curately represented our present species under the Linnaean 

 name of Sepia octopodia, (Br. Zool. iv. pi. 28). But, from the 

 description he has given, and from the name he has applied to 

 it, it is obvious, that he was unaware of the existence of any 

 other species of octopus, and mistook this for the O. vulgaris^ 

 which has a double range of suckers, and is much more com- 

 mon. The figure given by Car us of the O. fnoschites (Nova 

 Acta Acad. Caes. vol. xii. tab. 32.) agrees with Pennant's species 

 in its external characters, excepting that the body of the mos- 

 chites is a little more lengthened and cylindrical, the base more 

 tapered, the eyes larger, and the arms more slender. But Ca- 

 ms mentions, that his species smells so strongly of musk as to 

 fill quickly a whole apartment, whether the animal be dead or 

 alive ; and the same remarkable property is ascribed to it by 

 Cuvier, Lamarck, and other writers. Aristotle, Aldrovandus, 

 and some later authors, have divided the Octopoda into two ge- 

 nera, applying the term Eledona (eas^^wvj) Arist.) to those spe- 

 cies, which, like the present^ have only a single row of suckers 

 on each arm ; but this unnecessary subdivision of the well mark- 

 ed genus Octopus is probably not justified by the importance of 

 the character proposed, and the most distinguished naturali&ts,^ 

 as Cuvier, Lamarck, Blainville, and Cams, have not adopted it. 

 As Pennant's species has neither the white skin, the smooth sur- 

 face, the lengthened body, nor the musky odour of the O. mos- 

 chafus, and differs, in more obvious characters, from the other 

 species, we are compelled either to retain its specific name octo^ 

 ^odia given by Pennant, or to devise a new epithet more con- 



