392 Miscellaneous. 



but we hardly see how it is to be entirely removed. In the case of 

 the names of classes and orders indeed it would be easy to indicate 

 what the words actually signify ; but the much more numerous 

 family names cannot be treated in this way, and they furnish the 

 worst examples of " hard words." Fancy an unfortunate visitor to 

 South Kensington, innocent of Greek, finding within a line and a 

 half two such names as '• Amphignathodontidoo " and " Corato- 

 batrachidce " ! 



Prof. Flower, in arranging the General Guide to the Museum, 

 has had no such difficulties to contend with as the one just men- 

 tioned. His task was a comparatively simple one ; but he has 

 executed it in such a manner as to produce a most admirable guide 

 to the building the contents of which are under his charge, while at 

 the same time it will serve for the correlation of the separate guides, 

 to one of which we have called attention above. He commences 

 with an historical account of the foundation and progress of the 

 British Museum down to the removal of the collections to their 

 present abode, and finally notices, seriatim, the various groups of 

 objects exhibited, in the order of the galleries in which they are to 

 bo found. To aid the visitor in finding out where ho is and in what 

 direction to move in the labyrinth of rooms and galleries the book 

 is illustrated with elaborate plans of the different floors, and on the 

 whole no better guide to such an establishment could be desired. 

 In the nomenclature of the objects popular terms are generally 

 adopted, and when the names of classes or orders have to be 

 employed, they are generally explained. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

 On the Term Muelleria as applied to a Qenus of Holothurians. 

 By F. jEiFREr Bell, M.A. 

 However reluctant one may be to perform the most disagreeable 

 and thankless of the duties incumbent on a zoologist, there are times 

 and occasions when one must propose the change of a generic term. 

 The visitor to the_ Starfish Gallery of the Natural-History Museum 

 who consults the index to the new popular guide to that gallery 

 and to the collection of Mollusca will learn that the Muelleria he 

 finds among the Holothurians is a freshwater oyster ! The claims 

 of Ferussac (1823), who has ten years priority over Jaeger (1833), 

 are such that the Holothurian must have a new name : as Jaegeria 

 does not appear to be in use, and as its adoption will probably lead 

 to less confusion than any other name, while, lastly, it will give us 

 the opportunity of honouring a very thorough worker at Holothurian 

 organization, 1 venture to propose Jaegeria to replace Muelleria, 

 Jaeger ; the definition of the genus will remain as in the latest mono- 

 graphs. I cannot but regret that the authors of two recent valuable 

 monographs on the class generally should have left this little, but not 

 unimportant, point uncorrected. 



