A MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRINOIDB 675 



In 1875 Prof. Adolph Eduard Grubc described a species which he called Comatula 

 mertensi from North Borneo, based apparently on 2 specimens. 



In 1876 Dr. W. B. Carpenter published notes on the nervous system of a conm- 

 tulid which he called Actinometra armata, using a manuscript name which had been 

 given to it by Prof. Carl Semper who had collected it during his residence in the 

 Philippines, and in the same year Dr. P. H. Carpenter published other anatomical 

 notes upon the same form. There are many subsequent references to the anatomy 

 of this type, all of which, excepting the work of Hamann, who studied material sent 

 him by P. H. Carpenter, are based upon the original investigations of the two Car- 

 penters. 



In 1879 Dr. P. H. Carpenter described in great detail a new species which he 

 called Actinometra polymorpha. He remarked that the manuscript name Actino- 

 metra armata had been given to this type by Professor Semper on account of the 

 small spines with which the segments of the arms and pinnules are fringed, more 

 especially upon their dorsal and aboral margins. As, however, this character is a 

 very general one among the comatulids, and as it is by no means so well developed 

 in this type as it is in many others, Carpenter thought it advisable not to adopt 

 Professor Semper's specific name armata, more especially as it had already been 

 employed by Pourtaleis to designate a new American species (Analcidometra armata}. 

 Carpenter believed polymorpha to be very closely allied to, if not actually identical 

 with, the type described by Miiller as Alecto parvicirra. His diagnosis of polymorpha 

 includes both parvicirra and timorensis. The locality is given as Bohol. 



Carpenter's material consisted of 12 specimens, 8 of which he regarded as typical. 

 The other 4 he diagnosed individually as varieties. Of these, variety 1 , from Ubay, 

 and variety 2, from Cabulaun, are referable to parvicirra, while variety 3, from Bohol, 

 and variety 4, from Ubay, are referable to timorensis. 



Of parvicirra he said that the type specimen does not exist in the Paris Museum 

 under that name, nor even under the name of Comatula brevicirra Troschel (he should 

 have said Valenciennes) which seems to have been used as an equivalent for it. He 

 believed that 3 small specimens in alcohol from the voyage of Pgron and Lesueur in 

 1803 which he found, together with 2 specimens of Comatula pectinata, under the name 

 of Comatula simplex, are really those which were described by Miiller as parvicirra. 



In 1910 I examined these 3 small alcoholic specimens at the- Paris Museum and 

 found them to be examples of Comanthus parvicirra. One of them is now in the collec- 

 tion of the United States National Museum. 



Speaking of Lamarck's Comatula rotalaria, Carpenter said that, according to 

 Miiller, there are only 2 radials in this species, which are united by syzygy, while 

 they bear the IIBr axillaries directly, and these are also syzygial segments. He 

 remarked that although, like Miiller, he had examined Lamarck's original specimen 

 of this species, he can not confirm Muller's statement. He noted that it is true that 

 only 2 radials (that is, the 2 elements of the IBr series) are visible externally, but 

 this is often the case in comatulids with a broad centrodorsal, and he was quite unable 

 to satisfy himself that they are united by syzygy as described by Miiller, and as in 

 the case of the second and third radials of Comatula Solaris, while he was equally 

 unable to determine a syzygial union between the 2 segments of which the IIBr 



