%9o'"'] PROCEEDINGS OP THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 375 



III. 



If we were dependent on the authors thus cited, neither Liparis nor 

 Cyclogaster could be used for the fish genus, and the name next in suc- 

 cession would be Actinochir [proposed for a section of the genus in 1864. 

 These facts would doubtless be soon discovered by some one of the sev- 

 eral active investigators of the literature and morpholology of ichthy- 

 ology, and a change might then be proposed without further knowledge. 

 No change will be necessary, however, as in a binomial work univer- 

 sally overlooked, the name Liparis was used for the genus in question 

 long before it was employed otherwise. 



In 1777, J. A. Scopoli published an " Introdvctio ad historiam uatv- 

 ralem sistens genera Lapidvm, Plautarvm, et Animalivm hactenvs de- 

 tecta," in which, among others, he defined the genera of fishes. Liparis 

 was therein (p. 453) first used genericaliy, though attributed to Artedi, 

 and defined in the following terms : 



269. LiPAKis. Arted. Apertune brauchialessuperne tantum hiantes. Membrana 

 branch, nuda, oss, 7). Pinnse iuermes, 5) ; ventrali spuria, circulari, ut in Cijclopiero. 



Liparis was referred to the second " gens" of fishes characterized by 

 the approximation of the anus to the head, the second "divisio" of the 

 gens {dentati) having teeth, and the second "ordo"of the '■'■dentaW 

 having teeth in the jaws and throat. Cyclopterus was kept by Scopoli, 

 as by Linnaeus, in the Amphibia with chondropterygious fishes (p. 465). 



It is, therefore, Scopoli who has preserved the genus Liparis for ich- 

 thyology. The type, of course, is the species mentioned by Artedi. 



The facts in the case are summarized in the synonymy already given, 

 (p. 372). 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

 Plate XXVIIL 



Fig. 1. Cyclopterus lumpus (reduced from Goode). 



3. Eumicrotremus speirosus (reduced from Collett). 



3. Scapular arch and pelvis of Cijclopierus lumpus, the right-hand figures repre- 

 senting the external surface, and the left-hand figures the internal surface 

 of those bones (reduced from Borckert). 



EXPLANATION OF LETTERS. 



