448 ALETS, [Vo. XIV. 
the appearance of being simply an articular process of the 
chondrocranium, and not a part of the vomer. The septo- 
maxillary in these fishes thus seems to be an ossification 
formed in an articular process of the chondrocranium, to 
strengthen it, and not, as in Amia, an ossification formed 
directly at the articular surface of the process. If, however, 
the hind end of the articular ridge of Amia were to develop 
into a lateral process, and the articulation of the maxillary to 
be transferred from the bone to the cartilaginous point of this 
process, the resemblance would be exceedingly striking. 
In Esox, where there are two articular heads for the palato- 
quadrate, as in the Cyprinidae, the septomaxillary, or bone 3 
of Huxley, forms the anterior one of the two. The bone, as in 
Amia, is not capped with cartilage, and it extends into the 
cartilage from the articular surface as a center. 
In the Characinidae, where there is no septomaxillary, the 
palatine bone either articulates at its front end with, or is 
loosely attached by fibrous or ligamentous bands to, the under 
surface of the ethmoidal region of the chondrocranium (No. 36, 
Pp. 93; 95). 
In Gadus aeglefinus, where there is also no septomaxillary, 
the palatine bone is said by Brooks (No. 8, p. 174) to articu- 
late, at about the middle of its length, with ‘‘a cartilaginous 
eminence on the junction of the prefrontal and vomer,” the 
eminence, in the figures, seeming to lie between the ethmoid 
and vomer as much as, or even more than, between the latter 
bone and the prefrontal. This ethmoidal articulation of the 
palatine seems, from the descriptions, to be the only one that 
the palato-quadrate of Gadus has with the skull, the posterior, 
antorbital articulation of the arch being replaced by ligamen- 
tous attachment only. 
In Polypterus, where also no septomaxillary bone can be 
identified from the descriptions, the palatine bone, as identified 
by Traquair (No. 44, pp. 175, 177), is reduced to a small ossicle 
which articulates with the “lower margin of the projecting 
anterior, inferior angle of the prefrontal.” At this point Pol- 
lard shows also a ligamentous connection of the palatine with 
the ventral surface of the ethmoidal cartilage (No. 31, Fig. 33). 
