BONAPARTE S SYSTEM. 



85 



(80.) Trie prince of Musignano's arrangement of this 

 class is the most recent.* As we think it contains some 

 decided improvements upon M. Cuvier's, we shall lay 

 the following abstract of it before the reader, particu- 

 larly as we know that it is the result of no inconsider- 

 able share of knowledge and of attention to these animals 

 in their living state. It is not so much in the primary 

 divisions (which, like those of M. Cuvier, are entirely 

 arbitrary), as in the series in which some of the genera 

 are placed, that we conceive these improvements will be 

 found. The number of species which the noble author 

 believes to be comprised in each genus is added. 



I. Order. — 



ACAXTHOPTERYGII. 









Diacope Cuv. 

 Mesoprion Cuv. 



India 38 



1. Family. Percids. 





Tropics 48 



1. PeTcini. 





Acerina Cuv. Europ. rivers ; 







Polyprion Cuv. 



Warm seas 1 



Perca Temperate rivers 



11 



Pentaceros Cuv. 



Africa 1 



Labrax Temp, seas 



7 



Centropristis Cuv. 



Warm seas 10 



Lates Africa, India 



3 



Grystes f 



Am. rivers 2 



Centropomus America 



1 



A prion Cuv. 



1 



Lucioperca Cuv. Black Sea 



4 



Rypticus Cuv. 



Am. 2 



Huro Cuv. Lake Huron 



1 



Apsilus Cuv. 



Atlantic 1 



Etelis Cuv. ' Europe 



1 



Cirrhites Comm. 



India 6 



Niphon Cuv. Java 



1 



Chironemus Cuv. 



Australia 1 



Enoplosus Lac. Australia 



1 



Pomotis Cuv. 



Am. rivers 8 



Diploprion Kukl Java 



1 



Centrarchus Cuv. Ditto 7 



Apogon Lac. Warm seas 



22 



Bryttus Cuv. 



Ditto 3 



Cheilodipterus Lac. India 



3 



Priacanthus Cuv. 



Atlantic 15 



Pomatomus Risso Medit. 



1 



Dulichethys % Bon. 



Warm seas 11 



Ambassis Comm. 



12 



Therapon Cuv. 



Red Sea 10 



Priopis Kuhl Java 



1 



Datnia ^ Cuv. 



India 3 



Aspro Cuv. Europ. rivers 



2 



Pelates Cuv. 



Ditto 3 



Grammistes Cuv. India 



2 



Helotes Cuv. 



Australia 3 



Anthias Bon. Ind., Am., Eur. 



7 



Nandus Cuv. 



Ind. rivers 1 



Serranus Cuv. All seas 



22 



Trichodon Cuv. 



Arctic 1 



Merrus Cuv. Ditto 98 



Sillago Cuv. 



India 7 



Plectropoma Cuv. Ind., Am. 



14 



Rhynchithys Cuv. 



Ditto 1 



as the former, although on a different ground. If a genus is to be divided, 

 the divider not only affixes his own name as founder of the new group, 

 but he does the same to the original one ; so that, in fact, the merit of the 

 original founder of the genus is completely cancelled, and the generic name, 

 although retained, seems as if it originated solely in him who divides it. 

 If this is once allowed, there is no calculating the confusion, not to say the 

 injustice, that will follow : the fame or reputation of no one, who has de- 

 fined and named a group, is safe ; since it may be cancelled by the very 

 first who thinks it necessary to divide it. On this principle, the genus 

 Gadus, in our synopsis, would be ours, not Linneeus's ; and Teuthis would 

 be recorded in our systems, not as an effective genus made by Linnaeus, 

 but by Bonaparte. 



* Saggio di Una Distribuzione Metodica degli Animali Vertebrati ; di 

 C. L. Bonaparte, Principe di Musignano. Roma, 1831. 



t Micropterus Lac. $ Dules Cuv. \ Coius Buchan. 



G 3 



