1842.] Linnean Society. 151 



June 7. 



The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair. 



An Address to Her Majesty, on the late treasonable attempt on 

 Her Majesty's life, was read and agreed to. 



Joseph Hooker, Esq., M.D., was elected a Fellow. 



The Hon. H. Wright, of the Ceylon Civil Service, presented spe- 

 cimens of the inner bark of the Cinnamon Tree (the fine Ceylon Cin- 

 namon of commerce), peeled of an unusual length (nearly eleven 

 feet). 



Read " An Account of a Fish, nearly allied to the genus Hemi- 

 ramphus, taken in Cornwall." By Jonathan Couch, Esq., F.L.S., &c. 



Mr. Couch states, that in the month of August 1841, several indi- 

 viduals of this little fish were found swimming at the surface of a 

 large pool in the rocks near Polperro, where they had been left by 

 the receding tide, having been swept thither by a continued south- 

 west wind, which had also driven in many individuals of Motella 

 glauca and other fishes that do not ordinarily select such a situation. 

 Their length was half an inch ; the head proportionately large, espe- 

 cially across ; the body slender ; eye large ; snout in front of it 

 short and abrupt ; upper jaw arched ; under stout, projecting to a 

 considerable extent, but in some specimens more than in others, the 

 point declining, and the sides not appearing to be formed of parallel 

 rami of the jaw, but rather of a cartilaginous substance ; vent placed 

 posteriorly ; body, which is equal from the head to this point, taper- 

 ing thence to the tail ; lateral line, so far as could be distinguished, 

 straight ; dorsal and anal fins single, posterior, opposite, the latter 

 beginning close behind the vent, and both reaching nearly to the 

 tail, their membrane at first broader, but narrowing in its progress ; 

 pectoral fins and tail round. The colours of different specimens 

 varied greatly, some being dark with a tint of green, others cream- 

 coloured but sprinkled with specks ; regular and thickly set narrow 

 stripes passed from the back obliquely forward, breaking into dots at 

 the sides, in the darker coloured specimens; belly dark. 



Mr. Couch was unable to discover ventral fins even with the aid 

 of a lens. He has no doubt of the specimens being in a very early 

 stage of their existence, but cannot refer them to any known species. 



