46 Mr, C. R. Narayaii Rao on 



with very little generic affinity ; and obviously, in any 

 modern systematic work on Fishes, his term Cyprinus 

 would correspond in regard to inter-relationships to the 

 subfamily Cypriniuse* (family Cyprinidae). It is also evi- 

 dent that this must have been his meaning, for he employs 

 " Divisions " within his '^ genus " Cyprinus, and these 

 " Divisions," though not strictly defined, yet bring together 

 forms of fish which are nearly allied to each other and 

 whose common characteristics undoubtedly constitute the 

 basis of the " Divisions/' The common name given by 

 Buchanan to each of these " Divisions " is founded on some 

 vernacular appellations ; and the conclusion cannot be 

 resisted that Buchanan's " Divisions " therefore correspond 

 to the "" genera " of modern systematic ichthyologists. 



Accordingly, " Cyprinus garra '"' f is only used by its 

 author as a generic designation for Garra itself, whicli in- 

 cludes a number of stone carps. This position is perfectly 

 tenable, and the species Cyprinus lamta ( Discognathus lamta), 

 which Buchanan describes as a Cyprinus of the Garra kind 

 with four tendrils, should be obviously written Garra 

 lamta, H. B.J. Gilnther § regards this term as ''an odd 

 compound'' without any claim to anything like an artificial 

 or natural genus, and he is opposed to Bleeker's || ado|)tion 

 of what he calls a barbarous denomination (^Garra^ in 

 preference to the more classical term Discognathus. Now, 

 it was inevitable tiiat, with the literature available to 

 Buchanan^, and having to deal with a quantity of material 

 under the circumstances in which he worked, he should 

 have proposed a scheme of classification which rather 

 appears, to later investigators more fortunately placed, to 

 suffer from certain defects of terminology. Neither this 

 fact nor the other one — viz., that Garra is not a latinised 

 term — will deprive Buchanan of the authorship of a valid 

 genus capable of being used for all scientific taxonomic 

 purposes. Besides Bleeker, who, in following Buchanan, 

 employed Garra as a generic term for the description of a 

 stone carp from Ceylon"^* {Garra ceylonensis, Blkr.), Day 



* 1889. Day, Fauna Brit. Ind., Fishes, i. p. 238. 



t 1822. H. Buchanan, op. cil. p. 343. 



j 1919. Records Ind. Mus. vol. xvi, pt. i. p. 130 (Dr. Annandalo 

 regards Day, and not Buchanan, as the author of lamta). 



§ 1868. Giinther, Cat. Brit. Mus., Fishes, vii. p. 68. 



II 1864. Bleeker, Mehu. Soc. Holland, Harlam, Cobit. & Cyprin. Ceylon, 

 p. 8. 



^ 1918. Chaudhuri, Joum. & Proc. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xiv.. no. 6, 

 p. cxlv. 

 ** 1864. Bleeker, op. cit. p. 8, and 18G4. Zool. Rec. Pisces, p. 171. 



