like the Boges, but they have also a band of villous denticles behind
the flattened teeth.
A fish of the Red-sea, the Sparus crenidens of Forskal, has two
rows of compressed teeth in each jaw ; the external ones being larger
than those of the second row. These teeth are compressed, broad,
and their cutting edge is subdivided into five denticles, which give it
a festooned contour. Behind their crenate teeth, there are some small
granular denticles. The pharyngeal teeth in this genus form a fine
rasp. A figure of this singular dentition, after Cuvier, is given in
PI. 1, fig. 7. It concludes the series of modifications of the dental
system which have hitherto been discovered in the fishes of the
Bream tribe.
SCIJENOIDS.
40. In all this family of fishes, as in the Sparoids, the vomer and
palatine bones are edentulous. In the Maigres or true Sdcena, there
is a single row of wide-set, moderately large, conical, pointed and
slightly recurved teeth, with several smaller ones in the interspaces,
in both jaws.
In the Corvince, the larger conical teeth are restricted to the upper
jaw; the villiform teeth are present in both jaws ; on the pharyngeal
bones the teeth present the form of obtuse cones in the centre of the
dental group, and are villiform at the circumference. The maxillary
teeth of the Leiostomes are so minute, as to have escaped the notice
of some naturalists, and the name of the genus(l) was conceived
under this misapprehension ; extremely fine villiform teeth are, however,
present, and form a narrow band on each intermaxillary and
premandibular hone ; the te'eth on the posterior part of the pharyngeal
bones*are obtuse and form a fine pavement.
In the genera Eques, Larimus, Lepipterus, Dascyllus and Heliasis,
the maxillary teeth are minute and villiform. But in the Boridics,
each jaw is armed with three or four rows of thick, short, blunt teeth,
of which the six or eight anterior ones are conical and larger than the
rest. (2)
(1) Xeioc, sm o o th ; rroua, m outh. (2) PI. 1, fig. 14.
In the Conodon there is a single row of conical teeth in each jaw ;
the six anterior ones are longer than the rest. Behind the conical
teeth there is a band of villiform teeth.
In the Otolithes there are two teeth in the upper jaw much
larger than the rest.
The Ancylodons are also characterized by the extreme length of
certain of their maxillary teeth. In the Ancylodonjaculidens these teeth
are slightly dilated in the middle, and sharp pointed, so as to present
a certain resemblance to an arrow, whence the specific name of the
fish. There are two rows of these teeth in each intermaxillary bone,
and in the anterior part of the interspace of these rows there project
two teeth much longer and more curved than the rest. The preman-
dibulars are each armed with a single row of arrow-shaped laniaries,
of which the three anterior ones and the fifth are the longest. Besides
these laniaries the jaws support a narrow band of fine villiform teeth.
The tongue is smooth and edentulous. The pharyngeal teeth are
villiform, but the middle ones above are stronger than the rest. The
Ancylodon brevipinnis has a single row of laniary teeth in each intermaxillary
hone of which the two median or anterior ones are the
longest; in the lower jaw the median teeth are short, and those at
the sides are most developed.
In the Amphyprions, Pomacentrums, and Glyphisodons, there is a
single row of small conical or trenchant teeth on each jaw. Those of
the lower jaw in the Glyphisodon are slightly notched on the cutting
edge.
In all these genera the teeth, when fully developed, become
anchylosed to the substance of the jaws, but are subject to displacement
by the absorbent process, excited by the pressure of their
successors. In the Maigre (Scicena Aquild) the microscopic texture
of the teeth corresponds with the third modification, as exemplified
in the teeth of the genus Sphyresna (PI. 53).
T2ENIOIDS.
41. In the Trachypterus Falx, a species of the first genus of the
present family in the Cuvierian system, the mouth is transverse, with a
vertical aspect and nearly parabolic form. There are six or eight