CYPRINOIDS. 145 



small hemispherical tubercles. The jaw-teeth of the Poscilia 

 are also minute, but somewhat stronger than those of the Ana- 

 bleps. Those of Lebias are characterized by their dentated margin. 

 In the Pundulus, the anterior teeth in both the maxillary and pre- 

 mandibular bones are conical and recurved, while the hinder ones 

 are villiform. In the genus Cyprinodon all the teeth are " en ve- 

 lours."(l) 



The ordinary bones of the mouth in all the true Cyprinoid fishes, 

 of which the carp and roach may be taken as types, are devoid of 

 teeth ; but in some species there may be perceived upon the alveolar 

 border of the jaws, as along the intermaxillaries in the barbel, a band 

 of minute, close-set and pretty firm papillee, which may be regarded 

 as the uncalcified analogues of a series of villiform teeth, like those 

 of the Cyprinodonts. The only true teeth, however, in the present 

 division of the family are situated on the inferior pharyngeal bones, 

 which work against each other, or against a very hard upper pha- 

 ryngeal dental plate, which is fixed in a depression on the inferior 

 surface of the basilar bone, and may thus be regarded as an occipital 

 tooth. 



The dentigerous pharyngeals are a pair of arched bones 

 which may be regarded as the last of the lateral branches of the 

 hyoid apparatus, or as a fifth pair of branchial arches supporting 

 teeth instead of gills. They are smaller, stronger, and more curved 

 than the true branchial arches which are anterior to them ; they bound 

 the sides and lower part of the pharynx ; their anterior and inferior 

 extremities are connected together by ligaments, allowing a yielding 

 motion ; but I have found them sometimes anchylosed together in old 

 carp (2) ; their posterior and superior extremities are attached by 

 ligaments and muscles to the occipital region of the skull. 



Besides the movements backwards and forwards, the pharyn- 

 geals admit of being approximated and divaricated, and these 

 movements are produced by very powerful muscles. One of these 

 muscles, (&, PI. 57, fig. 1, in which the armed pharynx of 

 the barbel is represented as seen when looking down upon the base 



(1) Cuvier, Loc. cit. p. 354. 



(2) A portion of the left pharyngeal, so anchylosed to the right, is represented at 

 PI. 57, fig. 7 



L 



