718 American Work in the Department, etc. {September, 
worthy of preservation in more permanent form. Among those 
of this general nature, which have come under our observation 
during 1880, the following may be noted: NW. Y. Weekly Herald 
of May Ist, On the Oyster business; Sax Francisco Weekly Bul- 
letin Sept. 15th, On Oysters of the Pacific coast and the trade in 
them; the same Dec. Ist (in eastern correspondence), On the 
Oyster trade of Baltimore. In the San Francisco Morning Call, 
Dec. I-12, 1880, appeared a series of letters on Mexican oysters 
and the possibility of utilizing them, attempts at which, from the. 
vexatious customs regulations of Mexico, and the stupidity of 
the local officials who enforce them, have hitherto resulted in fail- 
ure, though the oysters are easily obtained and of good quality. 
The collections of shells belonging to various gentlemen in the 
vicinity of San Francisco, and especially that of Mr. R. E. C. 
Stearns, perhaps the most scientifically valuable of any private 
collection in the United States, form the subject of an article in 
the Sunday Chronicle, San Francisco, Dec. 26, 1880. 
Two papers of real value on “Staten island and oysters,” 
appeared in the Sczentific American for July 31st and Aug. 7th. 
In the supplement to that publication for July 1oth, J. W. Put- 
nam, C. E., contributes an important essay on the preservation 
of timber, especially with reference to attacks by boring mollusks 
such as the Teredo. 
The recorder may, perhaps, be permitted here to announce that 
having discovered that the name Ceropsis, used by him for a 
genus of Carditidz of the Californian coast, in 1871, is preoccu- 
pied, he desires to substitute for it the name J//neria, in honor 
of the late Dr. J. W. Milner of the U.S. Fish Commission. The 
name Candelabrum (used by him in 1878 for a Pleurotomoid 
genus having the posterior surface of the whorls concave, and 
with the keel produced backward in spines like those ornament: 
ing the varices of Murex), appears to have been used by Bisit 
ville for a radiate, but it does not appear whether Blainville’s 
name has or has not been adopted into science. If a new name 
be considered desirable, Ancistrosyrinx may be used. It comes 
from deep water off Florida. 
