October 9, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



473 



HCl and I£,SO, but also of UNO,, HBr and 

 C.H.Oj upon the seedlings of Zea Mai^, and 

 arrived at practically the same conclusion. I 

 not only called attention to the fact that the 

 seedlings of Indian corn are much more re- 

 sistant to H ions than those of Liipinus 

 alhus used by Kahlenberg and True* but also 

 that they are able to withstand a solution of 

 HCl or H.SO, four times as concentrated as 

 are the seedlings of Pisum sativum. 



It is true that the exact concentration of 

 H.SO, and HCL which I found to inhibit the 

 growth of corn roots differs somewhat from 

 the figures given by Dr. Loew. This varia- 

 tion in the results may easily be explained 

 by the different methods of experimentation. 

 F. D. Heald. 



Un^-ersity of Nebraska. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



A LITTLE KNOWN DEnL-FISH. 



In the Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History for August, 1897 (XX., 227), Bou- 

 lenger published a ' Description of a New 

 Ceratopterine Eagle-Ray from Jamaica,' 

 which he named Ceratohatis Eohertsii. 1 

 was reminded thereby of a species described 

 many years before (1862) by Richard Hill in 

 an article on ' The Devil-fish of Jamaica ' in 

 'The Intellectual Observer' (IL, 167-176). 

 Therein he named a small species Cephaloptera 

 Massenoidea on account of a supposed re- 

 semblance to the C. Massena of Risso. I 

 find that Hill's name and article are unknown 

 to ichthyologists generally and, therefore, a 

 note on the subject may be of use at the 

 present time and call attention to some un- 

 appreciated facts. 



The fish of Boulenger had a disk 13.77 

 inches long and 30.70 inches wide; the tail 

 was 24.40 inches long. It was assumed that 

 ' this ray grows to a very large size,' and 

 that ' the single specimen secured by Mr. 

 Roberts, the dimensions of which are recorded 

 above, is a young one.' 



The species of Hill had a length of 25 J 

 inches ' from the centre of the head to the 

 dorsal fin ' and the width was 48 inches ; the 



♦ Hot. Oaz., 



81. 1890. 



tail was 30 inches long. It was a female, hav- 

 ing ' a foetus just mature for extrusion, 16 

 inches broad,' and consequently full grown 

 or at least sexually mature. 



Hill's description is not sufficiently full to 

 enable an identification to be made from it 

 alone with Boulenger's specimen. No men- 

 tion is made of the dentition which is said 

 by Boulenger to be ' restricted to the upper 

 jaw ' in his species. Furthermore, there is 

 an apparent discrepancy in the relative propor- 

 tions, but this may be due to the difference 

 of the points between the measurements. The 

 proportion of the sum of the length of the 

 disk and tail to the width, in Hill's specimen, 

 is not irreconcilable with the proportions of 

 Boulenger's fish. It is improbable, too, that 

 two small species of the same family should 

 be inhabitants of the same waters. Whether 

 there are or are not is a problem for native 

 Jamaican naturalists or visitors to the island 

 to determine. 



Boulenger's measurements are given in 

 millimeters; Hill's in feet and inches. Re- 

 ducing Hill's to millimeters the principal 

 measurements are as follows : 



Boulenger. Hill. 



Length of disk 350 648 



Widtli of disk 780 1,218 



Tail 620 762 



The difference in size between the species 

 in question and the gigantic devil-fish is re- 

 markable. Another individual (which must 

 have been of another species) was noted by 

 Hill as caught shortly after the one he de- 

 scribed which had a disk 15i feet wide and 91 

 feet long and a tail only 2 feet long. 



The pregnant mother of the species de- 

 scribed by Hill was considerably less in size 

 than the foetus procured from the body of 

 another female killed in Jamaica many years 

 previously; that foetus was 'five feet broad.' 



S\ieh differences in size even might pos- 

 sibly be within specific variation, but as the 

 differences are coordinate with other structural 

 characters, they can not be in this case. 



TiiEO. Gill. 



