98 



of projecting points, but as dilFeiing from any described sparoid 

 form in having simple inferior pectoral rays, one of them projecting 

 beyond the rest, as in Cheilodactylus, and in the teeth, which are 

 minute and slender, in a single row on the jaws. The palate, vomer, 

 tongue, and pharyngeal parietes are tootiiless. 1'he fins are scale- 

 less, the dorsal single, the branchial rays only three in number, the 

 scales cycloid, and the pyloric caeca few (three). There is but one 

 specimen of Nemadactylus conciimus in the collection, which is three 

 inches and a half long, hLis a compressed elliptical form, and a spar- 

 oid aspect. Its lateral line is marked by a series of bright thin 

 scales, and beneath it, the integuments are merely silvery with 

 wrinkles, as ii some scomberoid fishes ; but the specimen has been 

 long in spirits with other fish, and it is possible that the scales of 

 the flanks may have been detached. If they actually existed, they 

 must have been proportiouably larger than those on the back, jud- 

 ging from the wrinkles of the epidermis. The scales of the back and 

 top of the head are small, thin, and delicate, like those of a mackerel. 

 Vertebrae 34. 



It may be thus characterized ;— 



Nemadactylus, n. g. 



Piscis acanthoi)terj'gius. Operculum Iseve, inerme. Pinna esquamosa?, 

 pinna dorsalis unica : radii pinna pectoralis inferiores (sex) sim- 

 plices, quorum unus productus. Costcc branchiostegce paucae (tres). 



Intermaxillarum pediculi breves. Denies gracillimi minuti in ambitu 

 oris tantum positi. Fauces palatum et lingua glabri. Squam<e 

 tenene, laeves, infraque lineam lateralem scomberoidcBe. Cetca 

 l)ylorica pauca (tria). 



N. concinnus, species unica adhuc cognita. 



Radii:— Bx. 3-3; P. 9 et 6 ; V. 1, o; D. 17, 28; A. 3, 15; 



C. 15f. 



10. Latkis Hecateia is the appellation given by the author to the 

 type of another annectant genus, which he considers as taking its 

 ])osition most naturally among the mcenoidea, but as having many 

 characters in common with a percoid group composed of the genera 

 therapon, datnia, pelates, helotes, and na7uhis. In Latris the mouth 

 is moderately protractile, the dentition is similar to that of mana 

 vomerina, there is a scaly groove for the recej)tion of the deeply 

 notched dorsal as in gerres, which genus it further resembles in its 

 opercular bones, the preoperculnm being very finely denticulated, 

 and the operculum terminated by a slightly concave line without 

 ]irojecting angles. The ventrals are still further back than in Ccesio, 

 and the caeca are few in number. The scales are cycloid, without 

 teeth or cilia, and the genus unlike any previously described mae- 

 noid group has the lower pectoral rays simple like those of aplodac- 

 tylus. There are no elongated scales at the base of the ventrals. 

 Latris Hecateia is marked by three well-defined dark stripes on each 

 ^ide of the back, with a more diffused one inferiorly on the flanks, 

 the four pyloric caeca are short and wide, and the only specimen in 



