MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CEINOIDS. 33 



Comatula macroncma I'tiloinetra macronema. 



Comatula savignyi Ileterometra sai'ignii. 



Comatula rotalaria Comatula rolalaria. 



Comatula fimbriutd Capillastcr mullimdiata. 



Comalulu clongata Dichrometra flagellata. 



Comatula parvicirra Comanthus parricirra. 



Comatula japonica Comanthus japonica. 



Comatula Jlagelltita Dichrometra flagellata. 



Comatula timorcnsis Comanthus panicirra. 



Comatula artieulata Liparometra articulata. 



Comatula multifida Comaster multifida. 



Comatula novx-guinese Comaster nov&guinex. 



Comatula bennetti Comanthus bennetli. 



Actinometra imperials Comatula Solaris. 



Actinometra pectinata Comatula peclinata. 



ICupillaster sentosa. 

 Actinometra multiradiata <_ ... ,,. ... 



[Capillaster mulhradiata. 



Actinometra wahlbergii Comanthus wahlbergii. 



Comaster multiradiatus Comanthus bcnnclti. 



In addition to these described forms they gave a list of undescribed species, 

 taking the names from labeled specimens in the Paris Museum. 



While we arc not at present directly concerned except with the systematic 

 history of the comatulids, it would be impossible to appreciate this properly without 

 some idea of the relative progress made along other lines of study, and it is therefore 

 fitting that some mention be made of the new era in the elucidation of the structure 

 and development of the group which began in the year 1863. 



Adams in 1800 had called attention to the two apertures on the comatulid 

 disk, while in the years 1823-1826 Peron, Gray, Leuckart, Meckel and Heusinger 

 independently demonstrated, in varying degrees of completeness, the existence of a 

 coiled digestive tract. In 1835 Dujardin showed that the eggs of the comatulids 

 are borne externally on the pinnules and are not internal as in the other echinoderms, 

 while in the same year J. V. Thompson demonstrated the stalked condition of the 

 young. In 1843 Muller made a valuable contribution to the knowledge of the struc- 

 ture of the comatulids in his classical memoir on the structure of Pentacrinus caput- 

 medusse (Isocrinus asteria) ; but the true understanding of the comatulid embryology, 

 development and structure may be justly said to date from the epoch-making 

 memoirs of Prof. George J. Allman, 1863 O'prebrachial" larval stage), Prof. Sir C. 

 Wyville Thomson, 1865 (early development), and especially of Dr. William Ben- 

 jamin Carpenter, 1866 Qater development, history and structure). 



Canon Alfred Merle Norman in 1865 published the results of his researches on 

 British echinoderms, in which he followed Gray (1848) in the use of Antedon in 

 preference to Comatula, at the same time changing the family name to Antedonidae. 

 He described no new species, but he recognized, as Pennant and Fleming had done, 

 two British species of the ^4. bifida type, Antedon rosacea (following Fleming in the 

 use of Linck's name) and A. miUeri, which latter he included on the authority of 

 Sir Wyville Thomson. 



In the same year Mr. Alexander Agassiz and Mrs. Elizabeth Gary Agassiz 

 definitely made known the first species of the family Comasteridse, Comatula 



