40 Mr. T. Gill on the Affinities of 



thogalum, Muscari, and Iris, although in these last four plants 

 either raphides or the larger prisms always abound. 



Amaryllidacece. — Raphides plentiful in the leaves, scape, and 

 ovary of Sternbergia lutea, and in the leaves of Brunsvigia 

 Josephina; but very scanty in a garden hybrid Amaryllis, and 

 not seen at all in a leaf of A. Belladonna. Leaf of Pancratium 

 maritimum : raphides small, and not plentiful. Alstrcemeria, sp. : 

 raphides in the scape, leaf, perianth, filaments, and anthers; 

 abounding also in the bulb, bulb- scales, and leaves of Leucojum 

 vernum. Leaf of Fourcroya gigantea : a few true raphides and 

 an abundance of larger crystal prisms ; these last are four-sided, 

 mostly with two faces broader than the other two, and the ends 

 either wedge-shaped or obliquely pointed. 



[To be continued.] 



Edenbridge, Dec. 8, 1864. 



VIL — On the Affinities of some doubtful British Fishes. 

 By Theodore Gill*. 



1. Ophidium imberbe, Montf. 



In 1811, in the 'Memoirs of the Wernerian Society,^ Mon- 

 taguf described and figured the fish identified by him with the 

 Ophidium imberbe. It was " taken on the south coast of Devon,^' 

 and in " length was about 3 inches ;'^ the body " ensiform ;" 

 " the dorsal fin commences immediately above the base of the 

 pectoral, and is at first not so broad, and usually not so erect as 

 the other part," and the caudal is cuneiform and obtusely 

 pointed. "The colour is purplish brown, disposed in minute 

 speckles ; and along the base of the anal fin are about ten small 

 bluish-white spots, regularly placed, but scarcely discernible 

 without a lens, possibly peculiar to younger fishes." The rays 

 were respectively — pectoral 11, dorsal about 74, anal 44, cau- 

 dal 18 or 20. Such was the first detailed account of Ophidium 

 imberbe, based on a British fish, and such the authority on which 

 the subsequent British faunists have preserved the species in 

 their catalogues. By TurtonJ, Fleming^, Jenyns||, Yarrell^, 

 Gray**, &c., it has been retained in the genus Ophidium (§ Fieras- 



* Communicated by the author, having been read before the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 



t Mem. Wern. Soc. i. (181 1) p. 95, pi. 4. fig. 2. 



X Brit. Faun. (1807) p. 83. 



§ Brit. An. (1828) p. 201. 



II Man. (1835) p. 281. 



IT Brit. Fishes, ii. (1841) p. 412. 



** List Brit. An. Brit. Mus., Fishes, (1851) p. 51. 



