22 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



cially, on account of their commonly starry shape and delicate markings, had been 

 the objects of much superstitious awe, so that we find them figuring in the early 

 literature, under the names " pentacrinos," " asteroites," or "entrochos," much 

 more frequently than the less dreadful but, as we know to-day, far more interesting 

 crowns. 



It remained for Edward Llhuyd to first point out (in 1699 and 1703) the con- 

 nection between the fossil crinoids and the recent sea stars, and to go even further 

 and suggest the Rosy Feather Star (" Decempeda cornubiensium," i. e., Antedon 

 bifida) as the type of sea star to which they were most closely related. Llhuyd really 

 deserves far more credit than is commonly accorded him for dissipating this halo 

 of seini-religious mystery which surrounded the fossil crinoids, and for his great 

 discovery of the relationship between them and the comatulids. His excellent 

 work, which may almost be said to have laid the foundation for the study of the 

 Crinoidea, did not meet with the reception it deserved ; his modest, yet convincing, 

 essays could not penetrate the thick wall of popular prejudice, and the comatulids 

 were later again assigned to the place which they had previously occupied. 



In 1711 Petiver described and figured the first comatulid known from a locality 

 outside of Europe, calling it the " Stetta chinensis perlegens" (Capillaster multira- 

 diata) . 



Three years later Barrelier described anew the form first noticed by Columna 

 under the names of barbata audfimbriata. 



In 1719 Rosinus, ignorant of the work of Llhuyd, attempted to show the con- 

 nection between the fossil crinoids and the recent sea stars, but he selected the 

 basket stars (Astrophyton, etc.) as the recent forms to which the crinoids are most 

 nearly related, thus not advancing so far as had Llhuyd 16 years before, though in 

 justice to him it must be admitted that he did not have the opportunities for examin- 

 ing the recent comatulids which were enjoyed by Llhuyd. 



In his really remarkable work upon the sea stars, published in 1733, John 

 Henry Linck gathered into one volume all of the facts which had been discovered 

 concerning the group. The comatulids he differentiated from the asteroids and 

 from the ophiuroids, placing them in the class "Stellas Crinitae," or hair stars, in 

 which he distinguished three genera JsKOKve/jtof, with three species, 

 with one, and Caput- Medusse, with two, as follows: 



Class STELLA CRINIT^E. 



Genus JE/td/cve/iOf : 



A. crocea (founded on the ozKadaauamtvoEtdr/f of Columna) Antedon medit&ranea. 



J. rosacea (founded on the Decempeda cornubiensium of Llhuyd) Antedon bifida. 



J. barbata (founded on the Stella fimbriata of Barrelier) .Antedon mediterranea. 



Genus TpiaKaiosK&KVE/wc (founded on the Stella chinensis perlegens of Petiver.) 



Capillaster multiradiata. 

 Genus Caput- Medusse: 



C. brunnum, sp. nov IComanthus bennetti. 



C. cinereum, sp. nov.; according to Miiller, Lamprometra palmata, though more likely 

 to be L. protectus, a species which was not differentiated from L. palmata by Miiller. 



