148 Miscellaneous. 



and in 1883 Pomel, perhaps following a suggestion by Dcsor *, 

 thought it necessary to separate these from the true Discoidea 

 (D. subucuhis) as a subgenus Pithodia, of which, if it were accepted, 

 the type would be D. cijlindrka f. 



Ignoring this action by Pomel, P. Martin Duncan, on p. 139 of 

 his " Kevision of the Echinoidea " J, proposed a similar subdivision 

 of the genus on very similar grounds, and erected a subgenus 

 EcMnites, of which the unique representative was D. subucuhis. 

 The name, as we have seen, was doubly preoccupied, indeed trebly, 

 for !MUller and Troschel had also used it for an Asteroid. The 

 subdivision had been anticipated by Pomel. And Duncan's method 

 of subdivision was impossible, since J), subucuhis is the genotype of 

 Discoidea. 



Prof. J. W. Gregory, however, while properly rejecting the name 

 Echinites, has gone further, and not merely proposed a new name, 

 Protocyamus, " to indicate the affinity of this Echinoid with the 

 Echinocyamus series," but has raised the form to the dignity of a 

 genus §. 



The name Protocyamus cannot stand, and it is very doiibtful 

 whether any subdivision is required. Gregory made no attempt to 

 rebut the arguments of Lambert, who {op. cit. 1892) pointed out 

 that the chief diagnostic character used by both Pomel and Duncan, 

 namely the distribution of the hydropores on the genital plates, was 

 one that, in some genera at any rate, varied among individuals of 

 a single species. 



So far, then, the conclusion is that all the species should be left 

 in one genus under the name Discoidea Agassiz. 



As for the trivial name subucuhis, the question has been raised 

 whether it should not be subucula. Klein, Leske, and, indeed, most 

 authors have written subucuhis. Klein explains this as " Kamisol- 

 KnopfF" (Anglice "shirt-button"), which, however, is not a trans- 

 lation of subuculus, but includes the word Fibula understood, since 

 the Conulus and Discoides of Klein are divisions of his " Sectio I. 

 Fibula," which he explains as a S2^h(Erula vel glomcrula vestiaria. 

 Subucuhis, then, was Klein's Latin for Kamisol ; but the Latin word 

 used by Horace and many other authors (see Facciolati and Forcel- 

 lini's Lexicon) was subucida, signifying " a man's shirt," masculine 

 enough in meaning if not in form. If no other authority for sub- 

 ucuhis can be found, it seems preferable to employ in the Exhibition 

 Galleries of the British Museum the spelling Discoidea subucula, 



* ' Synopsis des ifichinides/ p. 175 ; 1858. 



t Pomel, " Classification m^thodique &c.," Doctoral Thesis, Fac. Sci. 

 Paris, Alger, p. 75. 



X Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xxiii. ; 31 Dec, 1889. 



§ ' Treatise on Zoolocry,' ed. Lankester, vol. iii. " Echinoderma," p. 316 ; 

 1900. 



