100 M. Fries o» the Genm Syngnathus, 



cies. The specimen which served for the original of his figure 

 was probably S. cequoreus, Linn.* It is quite certain that the 

 name Ophidion must be retained for that species to which 

 Linnaeus first gave it ; which this was, we find without any 

 shadow of doubt in Artedi, who has given a very complete de- 

 scription of it in his * Descript. Spec' (P. 1. No. 1). It has also 

 latterly been described by all our Swedish authors, without 

 exception, under the same name. The only thing which we 

 may remark is, that Artedi, and subsequently Linnaeus, extend- 

 ed the synonymy too far, including a small distinct species, 

 which Willoughby has described under the name of Acus lum- 

 briciformis. This, which appears to be the most common in 

 England, obtained from Pennant and subsequent authors the 

 name Ophidion, till Jenyns considered it advisable to transfer 

 this designation to the male of cequoreus. The name lumhri- 

 ciformis is then again adopted by that writer, but not more 

 happily applied ; since he, without noticing it, describes under 

 this name the true Ophidion of Linnaeus. This is the only 

 satisfactory explanation I have been able to find of our Ophi- 

 dion also occurring in England. After Jenyns, Yarrell also 

 adopts the name lumbriciformis, citing at the same time the 

 description of the former, but himself describing under this 

 name quite evidently the original species to which this name 

 rightly belongs. Although, therefore, none of the above-men- 

 tioned authors were acquainted with more than two species of 

 pipe fish, yet, on collecting the species adopted by them, we 

 have the results that three species occur in England, and this 

 is also the case, as I have before mentioned, on our coasts. No 

 cause of doubting their identity with the English species has 

 occurred to me. 



Before I enter into the special description of our native spe- 

 cies I will direct the attention to certain general peculiarities, 

 which furnish some important points for the specific descrip- 

 tions. 



1. The position of the anal aperture in relation to its distance 



from the snout has already been made use of as a character 



* [The only specimen from Bloch's collection is in the Berlin Museum, 

 and probably served as original for the drawing ; it is however S. Ophidion, 

 agreeing at least with the characters assigned to this species by M. F. Fries. 

 ■ — Prof. Wiegmann.'] 



