BONES OF LOPHIUS PISCATORIUS — MORROW. 353 



The Ventral aspect of the vertebral column : The Axis has no 

 parapophyses, but at its anterior inferior edge a rounded ridge 

 for its articulation with the basi-occipital, and from the posterior 

 edge of this ridge there is an upward curve, which causes 

 the posterior to be in vertical height to its anterior edge 

 as three to five ; the curve mentioned is continued in the 

 axis and third centrum, making the vertical height of the 

 three named less than that of the remaining centra, and not affect- 

 ing the dorsal line. 



The centra, from the axis to the fourteenth, gradually increase, 

 and from the fourteenth to the eighteenth, decrease in vertical 

 height ; the remainder are nearly of the same height. It may be 

 observed that while in most of the centra the conical cavities 

 are of greater transverse breadth than vertical height, the reverse 

 is the case in some of the posterior centra, with the exception of 

 that between the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth centra. 



Between the basi-occipital and the anterior face of the atlas, 

 the usual conical cavities exist, but the atlas taken by itself is 

 neither amphiccelous nor proccelous, the conical cavity is found in 

 its anterior face, extending deeply into the centrum, and the poste- 

 rior facet has transversely a small anterior curve, but vertically 

 at its central line it has a straight surface, inclining anteriorly, 

 which causes a slight difference in the length of this centrum ; 

 between its upper and lower surfaces, the latter or inferior as- 

 pect being the shortest. The axis, which is very short, and the 

 remaining centra, are amphiccelous. 



The parapophyses of the axis and third centrum are very 

 minute, if even they can be said to exist ; they begin to appear 

 on the fourth, and continue to and upon the *ninth centrum. 



The hsemal arches are completed upon the tenth and eleventh 

 centra oy the coalescence of the hreniapophyses. The hasmal 

 spines appear on the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centra, 

 and following the general line of the vertetral column, each lies 

 in the anterior space between its posterior hsemapophyses. The 

 spine of the * fifteenth centrum at its posterior extremity has a 



* This is variable, as smaller and likely younger specimens show. In one the hsema- 

 pophyses do not coalesce until the fifteenth centrum ; in another upon the eleventh, and in both 

 of the above the parapophyses continue to and upon the tenth centrum, and also these two speci- 

 mens show the curved haemal spine upon the fourteenth centrum, these fish had only ten rays in 

 the anal fin. 



