1883.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 593 



GLEANINGS AMONG THE PLEURONECTIDS, AND OBSERVATIONS 

 ON THE NAME PLEURONECTES. 



BY THEODORE GILL. 



In "A Review of the Flounders and Soles (Pleuronectidie) of America 

 and Europe,"* President D. S. Jordan and Mr. David K. Goss have given 

 a much-needed and masterly summary of our knowledge respecting the 

 forms in question. With most of their conclusions I entirely agree, but 

 there are various minor points in which I am compelled to dissent from 

 them. One of the most important, and iudeed the most important in 

 some respects, relates to the application of the name Pleuronectes. For 

 over thirty years there has* been almost (but not quite) universal con- 

 currence in restricting that name to the small-mouthed species repre- 

 sented by the Pleuronectes platessa of Linnaeus. Messrs. Jordan and 

 Goss, however, now object to such a use of the name, and revert to its 

 employment by Fleming and DeKay for the Turbot and its relatives. 

 Inasmuch as an almost settled question is thus again opened, and as the 

 contusion induced by the proposed change would be considerable and 

 deplorable, an immediate inquiry into the propriety of that view is de- 

 sirable. Of course the fact that confusion would for a time result from 

 the adoption of Messrs. Jordan and Goss's proposition is no material ob- 

 jection ; but if the confusion can be averted without infraction of the 

 laws of nomenclature, and renewed stability be obtained for the loug 

 current names, a not immaterial boon will have been realized for Ichthy- 

 ology. A re-examination of the data involved in the question is there- 

 fore in order. 



JORDAN AND GOSS'S VIEW. 



Messrs. Jordan and Goss have given their reasons for the use of the 

 name Pleuronectes for the Turbot aud its allies in an argument which it 

 is only just to them to reproduce. It is found in their memoir in the 

 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1880 (pp. 

 255, 256; Separate, pp. 31, 32) : 



Our reasons for considering the Turbot as the type of the genus Pleuronectes may 

 be briefly stated : 



In the earliest restriction of the Linmean genus Pleuronectes, in which the latter 

 name is retained for oue of the subdivisions, the Turbot has been retained as t lie type. 

 We therefore find ourselves compelled to transfer the name Pleuronectes from the 

 small- mouthed flounders to the present group. 



The genus Pleuronectes, as it appears in the tenth edition of the Systema NaturaB, 

 is intended to contain all flat-fishes, 18 of which are characterized and named. 



*The Review was issued in advance of its appearance in the Annual Report of the 

 Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 18d6, with double pagination— that <>! the 

 Keport (pp. 22f>-336) aud that of the Separate (pp. 1-112), aud <J plates. 



■proc.H.M.8S-— 38 ^^£J^- 



