65G MR. F. J. BELL ON THE ECHINOIDEA. [June 17, 



are two very different l words, and that when specimens are accessible 

 which have served as basis for any systematic work, their results 

 should be accepted when correct, even when they upset a nomen- 

 clature generally recognized" ('Revision of the Echini' p. 301). 



Let us now see the extent of the " appearance " of this name. 

 In the year 1840 there was published the 42nd edition of the 

 ' Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum ;' and on page 

 65 we find a list of the genera of the family of the ' Echinidae,' 

 among which stands the name Hippono'e. All that we have here is 

 a mere list, with numbers appended to indicate the table-cases in 

 which the specimens were to be found, and that under an arrangement 

 long since altered : it is hardly worth while to inquire when ; for in 

 the year 1841, which ( although apparently by a slip) is the year 

 ascribed by Gray himself 2 to the publication (if so it may be called) 

 of his name Hippono'e, Louis Agassiz put out, and thus defined, the 

 name Tripneustes : — 



"Le genre Tripneustes est caracterise par trois rangees verticales 

 et paralleles de doubles pores dans chaque demi-aire ambulacraire et 

 par une rangee principale de tubercules aux bords internes des 

 plaques interambulacraires. La collerette des piquans est tres-de- 

 veloppee et la baguette fortement sillonnee d'un bout a, l'autre. Ces 

 Oursins ont de profondes entailles au pourtour de l'ouverture in- 

 ferieure du test. 11 se pourrait que ce genre coincidat avec le genre 

 Hippono'e de Gray, qui n'est point decrit, mais simplement- cite dans 

 le Catalogue du Musee Britannique. Dans ce cas, le nom de M. Gray 

 devrait etre prefere au mien " 3 . 



It has been a matter of some great difficulty to make out the 

 history of this name. In the Bibliographical list of Alex. Agassiz 

 ('Revision of the Echini'), the only references appended to the name 

 Tripneustes are, " Int. Mon. Scut. " (sic) and " C. R. Ann. Sc. Nat. 

 vi.." The second reference is intelligible enough ; and the first ob- 

 viously refers to the ' Monographic des Scutelles,' published in 184 1 ; 

 but it is obvious that the Introduction, which deals with the " groupe 

 des Scutelles en general," would only refer in the most incidental 

 manner to so distant a form as Tripneustes ; and it would have been 

 convenient if Prof. Alex. Agassiz had given the page on which his 

 father refers to this form : I have searched the pages of the Intro- 

 duction in vain. Prof. Louis Agassiz seems to have believed that he first 

 used it, definitely at any rate, in the preface to Valentin's ' Anatomie 

 du genre Echinus ' (cf. ' Nomina systematica generum Echinoderma- 

 tum,' where we find Tripneustes, Agass. Monogr. Echin. 4 e livr. 1 841). 



Since writing the above, which I let stand for the purpose 

 of giving an idea of the difficulties which are found in our way, 

 there has come into my hands au unbound copy of the four parts of the 

 * Monographies d'Echinodermes,' by which I find that in the 2de 

 livraisou, which contained the ' Monographie des Scutelles,' there was 



1 Different so far as that one is a " sense," and one a " nonsense " word, yet 

 not so different but that Hipponoe is the French form of Hipponoa. 

 2 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1855, p. 36. 

 3 Valentin's ' Anatomie du genre Echinus,' p. viii of the Preface by L. Agassiz. 



