CEPHALOPODA. — BEREY. 281 



In the first place, Lesueur published it as a mere nomen 

 nudum, and in the second place even d'Orbigny, who pub- 

 lished the name for the first time Avith a brief " description," 

 recognised the insufliciency of the latter and placed boscii 

 among his " Especes incertaines." On account of the alleged 

 great length of the arms, the species is compared by d'Orbigny 

 ^\ith 0. cuvierii {=nmcropus Risso), a parallel which if valid 

 certainly signifies that it is very different from the forms 

 which more recently have been awarded the same name. 



Gray (1849) gives a more complete description than that of 

 d'Orbigny, and it is in some accord with our specimens, but 

 how he arrived at his determination of his material is not 

 stated. It is clear that even assuming the correctness of 

 Gray's general conclusions, it is impossible to date boscii as 

 from Lesueur 1821. It can only hold from d'Orbigny 1838. 

 Meanwhile de Blainville in 1826 had already published a short 

 diagnosis of the same form under the name Octopus vario- 

 latus,* basing it as Lesueur originally did upon Peron's 

 manuscript and specimens. D'Orbigny's diagnosis in fact 

 seems throughout to be founded upon that of Blainville. 

 Under these circumstances, if we are to recognise the older 

 species at all, I see no escape from the rehabilitation of de 

 Blainville's long forgotten name. The temptation to reject 

 both names as impossible of determination is augmented by 

 the fact that we are really not at all sure that the West 

 Australian race to which these names must apply is identical 

 uith the lighter-colored southern and eastern specimens 

 since described by Gray, Gould, Hoyle, et al. In this eventu- 

 ality the next available name would seem to be tetricus, 

 Gould, 1852. Though here again the description leaves 

 much to be desired, it fits the common eastern Australian 

 species, at least in a general way. Next comes Hoyle's 

 0. boscii var. pallida, with which the present material is 

 certainly conspecific. 



* I am indebted to Mr. Ellis L. Mchael, of the Scripps Institution for 

 Biological Research, for a copy of de Blainville's description in the 

 Dictionnaire (182(1, p. 186), which is as folloM'S : — 



" Le Poulpe variole ; 0. variolatus, Peron. Corps tres-grand ; 

 peau couverte de tubercules tres-serres et tres-nombreux ; ap- 

 pendices tentaculaires extremement longs, tres-epais, armes de 

 deux rangs de ventouses arrondies et aplaties ; couleur d'un brun 

 noir ; longeur totalc, 0,60m. ou pres de deux pieds. 



Cette grande espece de poulpe a ete trouvee par Peron et Lesueiu 

 abondamment dans les excavations des roches qui bordent la petite 

 ile de Dorre, dans la bale de Chiens marins a la Nouvelle-Hollande. 

 Je ne la connois que d'apres une note de M. Peron, qui la rapportoit 

 au P. rugueux de M. Bosc." 



