OCTOMERIS. 



TESTA vsubconica, valvis octo, inaequalibus,^ 

 lateraliter conferruminatis, composita; apice 

 pervio, basi adhaerente (valvd testaced clausd?) 

 Operculum bipartitum, valvis quatuor com- 

 positum, anticis majoribus. 



It may, perhaps, be interesting to our readers to trac€ 

 with us the history of our knowledge of the singular elass 

 of animals to which the present new Genus belongs : thus 

 if we begin with the Linnean system, where the entire 

 class forms but one Genus under the name of JLepas, we 

 must be convinced of the truly natural character of the 

 Genus, as well as of the finely arranged views of that 

 Father of Natural History as a science. The Linnean 

 Lepas was by Bruguiere divided into two genera, under 

 the appellations oiBalanus frndi Anatifa (rightly , 

 which divisions correspond exactly with those of Lamarck, 

 which he designates by the terms Cirripedes sessiles et 

 Cirripedes pedoncuUes. We shall, however, find that our 

 countryman. Leach, has been the first to define in an able 

 manner the genera into which the family should be 

 divided : having, in the first instance, formed the two 

 primary divisions of sessile and peduncidated, under the 

 terms Campylosoinata and Acamptosomata, he divided the 

 former into Balanus, Acasta, Greusia, Pyrgoma, Clitia, 

 Tubicinella, Coronula, Chelonobia, Gonia, &c. ; and the 

 latter into Pentalasmis (the same as Anatifera, Lamarck), 

 Pollicipes, Scalpellum, Otion, Gineras, and others. Not, 

 however, finding these divisions to be sufficient, he has 

 in manuscript, on the boards of the collection at the 

 British Museum, proposed several other genera, which, 

 as he has not anywhere given the characters of them, Ave 

 cannot further enter upon. We would only observe, that 

 Mr. Ranzani, in his Mem. di Storia Naturale, proposes a 

 new division of the family, separating the Balanida from 

 the Anatiferida, and giving the characters of the follow- 

 ing genera, as forming the family of Balanida : 1st. Ase- 

 mus (the same as Conia of Lcach^ Polytrema^ De Ferussac, 



