REPORT ON THE CR1NOIDEA. 161 



dredged in the Mediterranean off the coast of Africa. I do not feel satisfied that this 

 is identical with Antedon rosaceus of the coast of Britain, though the two specific 

 names are usually regarded as synonyms. There is a great difference between them in 

 habit, a difference which it is difficult to define." Sir "Wyville was unfortunately 

 prevented by the state of his health from accompanying the " Porcupine " in this 

 cruise, and only made a cursory examination of the Coniatulas subsequently. Had 

 he been able to work them out at leisure, I cannot but think that the rediscovery of 

 Antedon phalangium would have taken place five years earlier than it did. Professor 

 Marion, to whom it was eventually due, has been kind enough to provide me with 

 some of his specimens from Marseilles, and I have not the smallest hesitation in 

 identifying them with the Antedon celtica of the Ross-shire coast, and also with the 

 Antedon which was found by the " Porcupine " in such abundance in the Bay of 

 Benzert, and on the Skerki Bank, off the coast of Tunis. During this same cruise of 

 1870 the type was also obtained by the "Porcupine" in 220 fathoms off Cape 

 Mondego on the Portugese coast, and likewise in 45 fathoms off Cape Sagres. Several 

 specimens were obtained too in about 80 fathoms a little to the south of Carthagena. 

 The " Dacia " dredged it in abundance on the Seine Bank in 88 fathoms, and the 

 " Talisman " took it off Cadiz. It inhabits somewhat deeper water than Antedon 

 rosacea, both in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, and this accounts to some 

 extent for its having so long escaped notice. 



Besides making a careful comparison of the external characters in numerous Scotch 

 and Mediterranean specimens, I have also compared the dissected calyces of examples from 

 both localities. Were they fossils, and the only material at my disposal, I should un- 

 hesitatingly refer them to the same species. In each case there is the same great 

 variation in the shape of the centro-dorsal, which may be either a thick disk, columnar, 

 hemispherical, or conical. But whatever its shape, the functional cirrus-sockets are 

 limited to two or three irregular rows around the equator, all the inferior portions of 

 the piece having the sockets more or less completely obliterated (PI. XXVIII. figs. 1, 2). 

 The appearances presented by the first radials are nearly or quite identical in examples 

 from the two localities. The figures which I have given of the Scotch Antedon celtica 

 would do equally well as illustrations of the same parts in Antedon phalangium; 

 though in some of the Scotch forms the transverse ridges separating the muscle-fossse 

 from those below them are less oblique than in the calyces which I have figured, 1 and 

 I have not found this to be the case in any examples of the Mediterranean variety that 

 I have examined. 



The chief difference to be noticed between the Scotch and the Mediterranean 

 varieties of this species is in the characters of the cirri. The maximum number of 

 joints in both forms is from forty -five to fifty ; but while in the Mediterranean 



1 Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.), 1879, ser. 2, vol. ii., pL iv. figs. 1-8. 



(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. PART LX. 1887.) 000 21 



