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CHAPTER II. 



HISTOEY OF THE GENUS SOLEA. 



The flat-fislies liave been always placed together iu one group in all attempts to classify 

 fishes from the time of the ancient Greeks and Eomans up to the present. Thus 

 Aristotle called them »/;rjTT&jSei9. But in ancient times other fishes of a flat sl^ape, 

 but symmetrical, like tlie dorey and the skate, have often Ijeen united with them. Thus 

 Eondelet includes among the " poissons plats" the dorey and two other symmetrical, 

 fishes and all the skates and rays. In the ancient and pre-Linntean times ideas 

 of classification were somewhat vague ; the idea of genus and species existed, thouo-h 

 it was not accurately defined, but degrees of classification regularly subordinated to 

 one another could not be established by men who had little real knowledo-e of the 

 structure and physiology of animals. Eoudelet includes all marine animals among his 

 " Poissons," yet his arrangement of the true Pleuronectidas in genera and species is 

 more similar to that which is now accepted than the cltissification adopted by Artedi 

 and Linnasus. Eondelet describes the genus Rhombus with two species, one with 

 spines and the other without, the turbot and the brill ; the genus Ehomhoides ; 

 Citltarus with two species ; Passer with four species. Passer, the plaice. Passer qiiad- 

 ratuhis, Passer liraanda, and Passer fiesus (the flounder) ; the genus Solea, with six 

 species, Solea, the common sole, Solea oculata {la Petjouse), la Pole, Armoglossus, Solea 

 lingtda, and Hippoglossus. 



Artedi arranged all the flat fishes into one genus — Pleuronectes, a name which he 

 introduced into zoology for the first time, and LinnsEus followed liis example. The 

 l'2th edition of the " Sj^stema Naturae" was published in 1766. Tlie successors of 

 Linnseus for some time continued to follow him and Artedi, merely dividiiig the genus 

 iu an arbitrary way into subgenera. Lacepede, in his '• Histoire Nat. des Poissons," 

 published in 1798, defines four subgenera of Pleiironectes, but without o-ivino- them 

 distinguishing names : the first of them comprises only the halibut and the flounder, 

 united because their eyes are on the right side and they have a curve in tlie lateral 

 line. Similarly, Eisso, in his " Ichthyologie de Nice," 1810, arranges the species under 

 two subgenera, according to the side on which the eyes are situated. 



Quensel in 1806 divided the senus into two, Avith the following definitions: — 

 Pleuronectes, having complete jaws not covered with scales ; the maxillary dilated 



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