Miscellaneous. 145 



bones, the Microchoeridao do not belong to the Inscctivora but to 

 the Lemurs ; Hymcotherium was not Tapir-like, and Ornithostoma 

 was not a Crocodile. 



Wc note, as in former volumes, too many instances of loose 

 writing, such as " The land Carnivores can bo sorted out on their 

 hind toes " 



The long lists of names of fossil species serve to fill out the 

 book, but it is doubtful whether they fulfil any other useful end 

 whatever. 



MISCELLAXEOrS. 



The EcJiinoid Xame Discoidea subuciila. 

 By F. A. Bathee, Brit. Mus. (Xat. Hist.). 



A FRIENDLY Criticism of the labels attached to specimens of this 

 Cretaceous Echinoid in the Geological Department of the British 

 Museum has caused me to look the matter up. There is nothing 

 very novel in the conclusions to which I have been led ; indeed 

 the tangle was almost entirely unravelled by Mr. J. Lambert twelve 

 years ago *. But there are four reasons for reopening the question : 

 first, Mr. Lambert's views appear to have passed unnoticed by 

 British authors, in spite of the ' Zoological Eecord ' ; secondly, his 

 conclusions are vitiated in the eyes of most zoologists by his accept- 

 ance of the pre-Linnean and uubinomiual writer Klein ; thirdlv, a 

 further erroneous alteration of the nomenclature recently appeared 

 in a book for which I was largely responsible ; and, lastly, after 

 lying perdu for just a century, another use of the name Discoides 

 claims attention. It may therefore be well to defend the name at 

 the head of this note. 



The name Discoides was invented by Klein f for a genus of his 

 section Fibula, he saying in explanation : — " Discoidem appellamus 

 mutuato nomine a figura Disci veterum (ff ) qui cum vase ligneo 



"(ff) Lucema praegrandis &c. cceuarumque reUquiis discus &c., 

 Apul. 2, Miles, p. 125." 



tomato convexo-concavo, quo nos reliquias ex mensa reponimus, 

 comparari potest. Tischkorb, Tellerschussel." The sole species 

 mentioned under this name was called by him Discoides subuculus. 

 Several of Klein's names were legitimized in 1778 by Leske in 



* " Eecherches sur les £chinide3 de I'Aptien de Grandpr6," BuU. Soc. 

 Geo]. France, (3) xx. p. 77 et sqq.; Nov. 1892. See further, Lambert, 

 " Etude . . . Echinides cretaces dans I'Yoime," BuU. Soc. Sci. Youue, 

 xlviii. pp. .58,59; 1894. 



t jSTat. Disp. Echinodermatum, p. 26; 1734. 



Ann. db Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 7. Vol. xv. 10 



