196 GRIFFIN. 



The writer wishes to express his grateful acknowledgements 

 to Professor H. P. Johnson, of the University of California, for 

 his very kind assistance in obtaining southern specimens of 

 Emplectonema viride Stimpson. He also feels indebted to Mr. 

 Mutty, of Port Townsend, for his permission to use one of his 

 buildings as a laboratory, and to Mr. Shaffer for his kind loan of 

 collecting appliances. 



II. HISTORICAL. 



During the years 1857-58 there appeared in the Proceedings 

 of the Philadelphia Academy a series of preliminary papers by 

 Dr. William Stimpson, in which he briefly described the inverte- 

 brates collected upon the North Pacific Exploring Expedition 

 (1853-56). The collections made by Dr. Stimpson include^ 

 among other groups, thirty-three species of Nemerteans, ob- 

 tained at points along the coasts of North America and Asia^ 

 though principally from Japan and China. 



Stimpson arranged his thirty-three species under seventeen 

 genera, of which the following ten were new : Diploplcura^ 

 Tceniosonia, DicJulits, Cephalonema, Emplectonema, Diplonnna^ 

 Dicelis, Polina, Tatsnoskia and Cosmocephalia} One half of 

 the new genera have now proved synonyms. Thus DicJnhis 

 and CosmoccpJialia = AmpJuponis (Verrill '92) ; Tceniosoma = 

 Eiipolia (Bijrger '95 (2)) ; Polina^ according to Biarger = Eii- 

 polia, but according to Verrill = AnipJdporus. Those of the 

 other half (viz. CepJialonema^ Diploimna, Dicclis and Tatsnoskia) 

 have not, to the knowledge of the present writer, been identified 

 with any of the valid genera of the present day. Their fate must 

 await further work upon these Japanese and Chinese forms. 

 Of the remaining sev^n genera, four (^Linens, Cercbratiilus, 

 Valcncinia and Tctrastcndnd) were well recognized at the time 

 Stimpson wrote, and are still valid ; while three [Mcckelia, Poly- 

 stenuna and Seipcntarid) are synonyms of Cerebratidus, AnipJd- 

 porus and Ccrebrattdns respectively. 



Two of the ten new generic terms invented by Stimpson rep- 



^ His classification throughout is superficial and based in the main upon trivial 

 external characters. 



