j 882.] Zoology. 55 



(From the American Naturalist, yanuary, /8S2.) 



Verrillia blakei or Halipteris blakei. — In the San Fran- 

 cisco Mining and Scientific Press, of August 9th, 1873, I pub- 

 lished a " Description of a new species of Alcyonoid Polyp, which 

 I placed in Cuvier's genus Pavonaria, and gave t&it the specific 

 name of blakei, in recognition of the courtesy of Dr. James Blake, 

 who kindly furnished the specimens to describe. Subsequently, 

 nine days after the publication of the first description as above, at 

 a meeting of the California Academy of Sciences, held on the 18th 

 day of August, I removed the species to a new sub-genus which 

 I called Verrillia, in honor of Professor Verrill, of Yale College. 



The characters of this sub-genus were defined as follows : 

 " Polypidon linear-elongate, round or ovate in cross section. 

 Axis round, slender, bony; polyps arranged in two unilateral 

 longitudinal series." 



In Nalitre for November 6th, 1873, Dr. J. E. Gray, in an article 

 entitled, "On the stick fish ( Osteocella septentrionalis), and the 

 habits of the sea pens," endeavored to make it appear that his 

 genus and species, should have precedence, or the names so given 

 by him should stand instead of mine, and gave what he called 

 " the synonyma of these animals," presenting the sequence of dates 

 of publication of the various papers, to show the priority of his 

 own. 



To this communication of Dr. Gray's I replied in a paper read 

 before the California Academy of Sciences on the 16th of March, 

 1874, in which I reviewed the claims of Dr. Gray and his genus 

 and species Osteocella septentrionalis, and denied the validity there- 

 of, on the ground that " No description sufficiently accurate to be 

 worthy of consideration can be made of the axial rods or bones 

 alone, of this class of animal forms, nor can species be satisfac- 



