33G BULLETIN OF THE 



fossils determine stratified rocks in different parts of the world. This idea 

 of community of existence gets some strength from the varying depths at 

 which A. lenera is found (i to 128 fathoms), while its northern represent- 

 ative, A. squamata or elegans, is found from the Mediterranean, on the 

 east, to Cape Cod, on the west ; and from low water to three hundred 

 fathoms* (var. tenuispina). The new genus Amphilepis Ljung.f seems 

 better grounded. It contains the new species A. norvegica, and is charac- 

 terized by only four mouth-papillae to each angle and by absence of ten- 

 tacle scales. However this may be, there are groups in Amphiura quite as 

 clearly marked generically as is Amphilepis, and especially that already re- 

 ferred to as including A. grandisquama, which is characterized by having 

 only two mouth-papilla: placed just under the teeth, a deficiency made up 

 by the development of the tentacle scales of the two pairs of mouth-ten- 

 tacles ; furthermore, the many-spined Amphiurce (4 to 8) are all found in 

 this group. Its species, eighteen in all, are embraced in the table on pp. 

 838 and 339. 



I by no means wish to suggest, because so many minor differences are 

 thus indicated, that an equal number of generic differences should be recog- 

 nized ; on the contrary, no naturalist has a right to take such a step, unless 

 he has had most of the species under his own eye for critical comparison. 



Next to A. planhpina stands the genus Hcmipholis, which has two 

 species, — H. cordifera Lym. and //. affinis Ljn.J Ophiocnida and 



* Sars, Over det dyriske Livs Udbredning i Havets dybder, 1868. 



t Ljungman, Ophiuroidea Viventia, p. 322. 



J Its synonyme is //. gracilis, Vll. Professor Verrill (Proceed. Boston Soc. Nat. 

 Hist. XII, 391) thinks that he .has priority in the name, because, in a separate publica- 

 tion of Ljungman's Ophiuroidea Viventia, there is a note by Loven dated May 18, 1867. 

 But this note has nothing to do with the original publication which is in the Ofversigt 

 af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Forhandlingar, 1866, No. 9. Ljungman's paper was 

 read November 14, 1866. Venill's was read January, 1867, and published in Trans. 

 Connecticut Academy, March, 1867. This whole matter of priority in descriptions is 

 of no sort of interest to science, except as a matter of registration. Nor is it profitable 

 to enter on the question of what constitutes publication. But we may say, that the par- 

 tial distribution of loose sheets of an incomplete paper, though a useful and praisewor- 

 thy custom, constitutes no greater claim for priority than the reading of a paper before 

 an ancient and distinguished Academy, and th<> speedy publication of that paper in its 

 complete and connected form. There are now many zoologists who seem to think that 

 species must be continually " reported," just like stocks at the brokers' board. Agas- 

 siz showed, twenty-throe years ago, in his preface to the Nomenclator Zoologicus, that the 

 " authorities" placed after names were merely references of registration, and not marks 

 of praise to the authors. Thus when we read Ophioderma longicauda Mull, and Trosch., 

 it means not, " The illustrious zoologists Johannes Miiller and F. II. Troschel had the 

 honor to give the above (wrong!) name to this species " ; but, " If you look in the System 

 der Asteriden, you will find what Miiller and Troschel thought or knew of this species." 



