108 LABROIDS. 



rows, the largest being external. The teeth are hollow to near the 

 apex. They are first attached by ligaments to prominences of the 

 thick alveolar margin, which ligaments become converted by the 

 ossific process into bony cylinders, corresponding in size with the 

 base of the tooth to which they are finally anchylosed. The teeth, 

 when shed, separate from these cylindrical bases, which are removed 

 by a subsequent process. The branchial teeth are arranged in small 

 groups on the summits of the short obtuse apophyses which project at 

 regular distances from the concave margin of the branchial arches. 

 The pharyngeal teeth resemble in form and arrangement those of the 

 jaws, but are smaller in size. 



CHAPTER V. 



TEETH OF CYCLOID FISHES. 



LABROIDS. 



47. The fishes included in the family Labroides of Cuvier, are 

 chiefly distinguished by the great size and strength of their pharyngeal 

 bones, of which there are two above and one below, all armed with 

 teeth which vary as to their forms in diflerent groups or genera of 

 the family. Besides the pharyngeal teeth, which are adapted to give 

 the final comminution to the food, the fishes of the genus Labrus of 

 Linnseus, or the " Wrasses," have teeth which are commonly well 

 developed and of a conical form on the intermaxillary and preman- 

 dibular bones, but none on the superior maxillaries, palatines, or 

 vomer. 



In the sub-genus Clepticus, the pharyngeal teeth form, col- 

 lectively, small plates with a serrated margin. In the Clep. genizara 

 the superior pharyngeals support five rows of these saw-like plates, 

 which work upon a similar dental armature of the inferior pha- 

 ryngeal bone. 



In the species of Chromis (Cuv.), and its subgenera Cychla, 



