Mtseellaneous. 151 



of Lamarck, and gives Tethie as the French and Tethea erroneously 

 as the Latin name, and quotes Tethea lyneurium and T. cranium as 

 types, names not found in Lamarck. 



Note on the Systematic Name of the Walrus. By Dr. "W. Peters. 



Although Steenstrup and Sundevall, nearly thirteen years ago, 

 showed that Linne, in the first edition of his ' Systema Naturae ' 

 (1735), applied the generic name Odohcenns to the walrus, and that 

 at the same time the name Trichechus had been given by Artedi and 

 Linne alike to the manatee, which they then considered to belong 

 to the class of fishes, it seems that these facts have not been so much 

 appreciated as they ought to be. Linne continued to apply the 

 name Trichechus exclusively to the " hairy " fish, which he after- 

 wards united with Elephas, Brady pus, Myrmecophaga, and Manis 

 in his order Bruta. This may be seen even as late as the tenth 

 edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' (1758), wherein the walrus figures 

 at the same time as Phoca rosmarus amongst the Ferae. Only in 

 the twelfth edition of his 'Systema Naturae' (1766), p. 49, Linne 

 added the walrus, as a second species, to the manatee in Artedi's 

 genus Trichechus, upon the presumption that it had " dentes pri- 

 mores nuUos utrinque." 



It seems therefore quite clear that it is wrong to apply the generic 

 name Trichechus (belonging to the manatee) to the walrus. 



We have another, quite analogous case in zoology of the mis- 

 application of a generic name, namely that of Ursus labiatus, 

 which, in consequence of losing its front teeth easily, was trans- 

 ferred from the Ferae to the Bruta or Edentata, and stands as 

 Bradypus ursinus in the systematic arrangements of Pennant and 

 Shaw. But no one, I think, would contend that we ought to apply the 

 name Bradypus, previously used for the Sloths, to the Ursus labiatus. 



The Clustered Sea-Polype (Umbellula groenlandica). By Dr. J. E. 

 Gray, F.K.S. &c. 



Two specimens of this very rare and extraordinarily large Radiate 

 animal from Greenland were obtained during the Swedish expedition 

 of the frigate ' Eugenia ' to the Northern Ocean. Only two speci- 

 mens had previously been seen, which were obtained by Captain 

 Adrians on the coast of Greenland, and described by M. Christlob 

 Mylius in 1754, and by Ellis in Phil. Trans, vol. xlviii. p. 305. 

 These specimens are believed to be no longer in existence ; so that 

 the rediscovery of this animal is most important, and we await the 

 description of it in the zoology of the voyage with impatience. (See 

 Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1860, v. p. 25, and Cat. Sea-Pens 

 in Brit. Mus. p. 39.) 



Ziphius Sowerhiensis. 



Mr. William Andrews informs me that they have received a fine 

 perfect skeleton of this rare whale at the Dublin Museum. This is 

 the third specimen taken on the west coast of Ireland in the last few 

 years ; they were all males and have two large well -developed teeth 

 like the specimen figured by Sowerby. — Dr. J. E. Gray. 



