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Show 1879.J MR. F. J. BELL ON THE ECHINOIDEA. 657 published a short essay entitled 'Observations sur les progres re-cens de l'liistoire naturelle des Echinodermes;' and there, on its seventh page, we find these words:-" Dans un travail encore inedit sur les especes vivantes de l'ancien genre Echinus, travail que je me propose de publier prochainement, j'ai etabli les coupes suivantes, dont je me bornerai a citer ici les types ; Tripneustes (E. ventri-cosus)" I do not think that there is any need to particularize such a method of detailing the history of a name in a work which is entitled a ' Revision;' but I have thought it right, while giving an account of Prof. Alex. Agassiz's method of working out his subject, to give all the material necessary for other naturalists, who desire to investigate for themselves the matter in question. That there was some good cause for confusion is evident from the fact that no less eminent a naturalist, and careful a writer than Prof. E. von Martens put out the synonymy thus :-"Tripneustes, Ag. 1847; Hipponoe, Gray, 1841; non Hipponoe, Audouin et Milne-Edwards, 1834 (Annelid) " l. It will now be possible to write the synonymy thus:- Tripneustes, L. Agassiz, 1841 : p. viii of preface to Valentin's Anat. du genre Echinus. Hipponoe, Gray, 1855 : P. Z. S. 1855, p. 36. Heliechinus, Girard, Proc. Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist. iii. p. 364 (fide Agassiz)2. Having now dealt at an almost wearisome length with the vexed and vexatious question of the name proper to this genus, it is time to pass to the consideration of the species of which it is made up. In the 'Revision' three are recognized:-T. depressus, A. Ag., T. esculentus, Leske (this appears to be the correct name for E. ventri-cosus, Lamk.); and T. variegatus, Leske. I now come to some observations on the specific name variegatus; and I will put them briefly thus:- (1) The name variegatus is never used by any writer on the genus Tripneustes subsequent to Leske and prior to Alex. Agassiz. (2) The names synonymous with it in the opinion of Prof. Agassiz, sardica and angulosa, are also used by Leske: the former has been applied by Lamarck, de Blainville, Des Moulins, L. Agassiz, and Dujardin and Hupe, among others ; while angulosa has been used by de Blainville, and by Dujardin and Hupe. (3) The order in which these forms are described3 will be shown by stating the pages on which they are found:-Cidaris angulosa, p. 92 ; Cidaris sardica, p. 146 ; Cidaris variegatus, p. 1494. It is obvious that the name which must be used is angulosus; as to the other synonyms given by Agassiz in his list, they all appear to include forms which belong to this somewhat variable and widely distributed species. The first species of the three, depressus, which has been found on 1 Archiv fiir Naturges. xxxii. p. 160. 2 Cf. Desor, ' Synopsis des fichinides fossiles,' Paris, 1858, p. 132. * Additamenta ad Kleinii dispositionem Echinodermaturn. N. G. Leske. Lipsiae MDCCLXXVIII. Variegata is stated (Rev. Ech. p. 135) to be described on p. 85 of Leske's Additamenta : p. 85 is occupied by part of the description of T. saxatilis; and the word variegata is not to be found on it! PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1879, No. XLII. 42 |