168 CLASS XIV. 



their posterior horizontal portion; other small, thin teeth placed 

 behind the outer. Yomer and palate-bones rough with small teeth. 

 Dorsal fin long, beginning over ventral fins, with ten or eleven pun- 

 gent spines, with its soft part opposite to anal fin. 



Sp. Pimelepterus Boscii LAC., Poiss. iv. PI. 9, fig. i, Cuv. et VAL., Poiss. 

 vni. PI. 137, at Carolina; Pimelepterus altipinnis Cuv., GUERIN Iconogr. 

 Poiss. PI. 25, fig. i ; from New-Guinea, and different species from the 

 Indian Ocean. 



B. Teeth in palate mostly none. Branchiostegous membrane with six or 

 with jive rays. 



Note. CUVIEB divided the Squamipennes according to the presence and 

 the defect of palatine teeth, and disallowed these teeth to the following 

 genera entirely. Yet in the skeleton of Platax artkriticus I observe some 

 few acute teeth in the vomer, and in Psettus rhombeus very minute teeth 

 are present in five parcels, namely, in the vomer, the palate and pterygoid 

 bones. On this account I think that this character must be restricted 

 to the majority, and have added another taken from the number of rays 

 of the branchiostegous membrane. 



Dipterodon Cuv. Strong teeth with sharp flat margin, ar- 

 ranged in jaws in a single row, behind this row in upper jaw 

 others small, short. Dorsal fins two contiguous (or dorsal fin deeply 

 emarginate in front of soft rajs). 



Sp. Dipterodon capensis Cuv. et VAL. Poiss. vn. PI. 188. 



Psettus COMMERS., Cuv. Maxillary teeth crowded, very small, 

 distinguishable rather by touch than sight. Body in some oval, in 

 others very high, short. Dorsal and anal fins falciform, with the 

 points only emergent of the pungent rays in the anterior part. 

 Ventral fins with a small spine conspicuous, and one or a few soft 

 rays, scarcely distinguishable. Scales moderate. 



Sp. Psettus Sebce Cuv., Chcelodon rhombeus BL., SCHN., SEBA Thesaur. in. 

 Tab. 26, fig. 21, Cuv. et VAL. Poiss.vu. PL 189, from the coast of Guinea; 

 Psettus Commersonii, Monodactylus falciformis LAC. Poiss. n. PI. 5, fig. 

 4, &c. 



Platax Cuv. Teeth sharp, subulate or setaceous, densely crowd- 

 ed in jaws like a little brush. Body very high ; dorsal and anal 

 fins falciform, with pungent spines in the anterior margin immersed, 

 almost concealed. Scales small. Ventral fins elongate. 



Sp. Platax JBlockii Cuv., Chcetodon vespertilio BLOCH, Ichth. Tab. 199, fig. 2 ; 

 BLEEKER unites with this species Platax Ehrenbergii Cuv., R. Ani., ed. 

 ill., Poiss., PL 42, fig. i, which probably agrees with Chctfodon pinnatusL. 



