25 



Pistils three to five, three [occasionally four fertile] capitate, hir- 

 sute, ovary very villous. 



A very remarkable species, closely allied to the natural order Sa- 

 plndacece. 



The specific name we give in honor of Dr. J. A. Veatch's son, 

 Mr. A. A. Veatch, a worthy gentleman, to whose ardent zeal and 

 enterprise in the cause of natural science we have been frequently 

 indebted. 



October 17, 1859. 



President in the Chair. 



Dr. Wm. 0. Ayres presented the following paper on new fishes of 

 this coast : 



Sehastes nigrocinctus, [Ayres] . — This species is very closely allied 

 to S.fasciatus, Grd. and is most readily defined by stating its points 

 of difference from that type. 



The supra-orbital spines are much less regular, the posterior being 

 merely a thin, angular ridge, having, between it and the occipital 

 spine, a thick, blunt tubercle. The intra-orbital space, which is free 

 in fasciatus, is occupied by a pair of longitudinal, thin, angular-top- 

 ped ridges, terminating in a pair of slender tubercles, on a line with 

 the blunt post-orbital pair. The preopercular, opercular and scapular 

 spines are very similar in the two species. 



The extremity of the maxillary scarcely reaches the line of the 

 anterior border of the orbit. 



The length of the anal fin is less, being contained three times in 

 the length of the side of the head. 



The undivided rays of the pectorals are in fasciatus free for some 

 distance at their tips ; in nigrocinctus the same rays are very slightly 

 free. 



In color the two species are entirely unlike ; nigrocinctus is of a 

 plain reddish yellow, crossed by five to six strongly marked, well-de- 

 fined, nearly vertical, broad black bands. The head has commonly 

 a black band from the eye upward and backward, and another from 

 the eye downward and backward. 



The accessory scales are as in fasciatus. 



D. XIII, 15, A. Ill, 7, P. 9, 10, V. 1, 5, C. 4, 1, 6, 6, 1. 



This species is by no means common. I have seen but three in 

 San Francisco in six years. The largest was not quite fourteen 

 inches in length. 



