Among the many scientific gentlemen who had discussed the character and 

 relations of the so-called switches, Dr. P. L. Sclater, of the Zoological Society, 

 kindly gave publicity to Verrillia Blakei, in Nature, for October 9th, 1873. 



In the same journal, of date Nov. 6th, 1873, Dr. J. E Gray, of the British 

 Museum, publishes a communication " On the stick-fish, (Osteocella septentrion- 

 alis) and on the habits of sea-pens," in which he refers to a specimen presented 

 to the Museum by Mr. Coote M. Chambers, and of which he says: " Unfortu- 

 uately the specimen did not arrive in a good state for exhibition. The greater 

 part of the animal portion had been washed off, probably by the motion of the 

 solution during the transit ; only about a foot of the flesh which was loose on 

 the axis, and the thick, swollen, naked, club-shaped base, without polypes, re- 

 mained ; but it was in a sufficiently good state to afford the means of deter- 

 mining its zoological situation, and of examining its microscopical and other 

 zoological characters." 



In the next paragraph, of which I quote a portion, Dr. Gray says : " Mr. 

 Chambers' specimen is the animal of the axis or stick, that I described as Oste- 

 ocella septentriowlis, (Add. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1872, p. 406) * * * * * 

 and is evidently the same animal as Pavonaria Blakei, described by R. E. C. 

 Stearns." 



•• Two days alter I received this specimen, I received by post Mr. Stearns' 

 description of the stick fish, {Pavonaria Blakei) from the San Francisco Mining 

 and Scientific Press, August 9th, 1873." 



Towards the close of his article, Dr. Gray writes : li Mr. Stearns' paper, in 

 the Proceedings of the California Academy of Scieuces, is a reprint of the 

 paper in the San Francisco Mining and Scientific Press, with a few additions, 

 and the addition of anew sub-genus, Verrillia, although he quotes Osteocella." In 

 this paper Mr. Gray gives what he considers " the synonymy of those animals "; 

 first, the genera, and next, the species ; placing my first generic determination. 

 Pavonaria, and my subsequent sub-genus, Verrillia, in the order as recited, as 

 synonymes of his genus Osteocella. 



I would ask Dr. Gray by what warrant, either of science or justice, he 

 places Pavonaria or Verrillia, definitely described genera, as synonymes of his 

 indefinite and vague Osteocella, which latter he publisher as a genus, for it can- 

 not be said he describes it, in the " Catalogue of Sea- Pens — or Pennatulidae — 

 in the British Museum " 1870, page 40. Gray's genus Osteocella is based upon 

 a " bone," (probably the axis of a polyp) which was sent to the British Museum 

 "many years ago," from Australia, by a gentleman named Clifton. The in- 

 vesting fleshy substance, or soft portion of the animal, of which said bone 

 formed a part, had not been seen by Dr. Gray at the time he invented the name 

 Osteocella, and even to this date no additional light has been furnished by him 

 regarding the Australian form. He was not even positive that the " bone " be- 

 longed to a zoophyte, for he says : " or, it may be the long conical bone of a 

 form of decapod cephalapod which has not jet occurred to naturalists, as Mr. 

 Clifton spoke of its being a free marine animal : it has a cartilaginous apex like 

 the cuttle fish." 



