REPORT ON THE CRINOIDEA. 323 



The second distichals, first palmars (when present), and first brachials bear long- 

 tapering pinnules ; the first one reaching 18 mm., while the others are rather smaller. 

 That of the third brachial is considerably so, and the next three pinnules are of 

 decreasing size. The lowest pinnules have a well-marked comb, which may extend out 

 to the twentieth or twenty-fifth brachial. The basal joints of the lower pinnules may 

 be somewhat carinate, and in the following pinnules the edges of the joints project 

 laterally. 



Mouth radial ; disk naked, or with scattered calcareous nodules. 



Colour in spirit, — blackish-brown ; the disk sometimes mottled with white. 



Disk 19 mm.; spread reaching 25 cm. 



Locality.— Station 186, September 8, 1884 ; Prince of Wales Channel ; lat. 10° 30' N., 

 long. 142° 18' E.; 8 fathoms ; coral mud. One specimen. 



Other Localities. — Indian Seas (Linnaeus) ; Australian Seas (Peron and Lesueur) ; 

 Sumatra ; Bohol ; China Sea ; Kagoshima Bay, Japan. 



Remarks. — The type of this species is a dry and somewhat mutilated Actinometra 

 in the Retzian collection at Lund, on which Linnaeus seems to have based his brief 

 description of Asterias multiradiata} He also referred to it the Caput-Medusse 

 cinereum and the Caput-Medusse brunnum of Linck ; but the exact specific relations of 

 these two forms must remain uncertain, as Linck's figures are not sufficiently clear for 

 the characters of their arm-divisions to be made out. 



Retzius gave a more detailed description of the original type of Asterias multi- 

 radiata in 1783, 2 stating the number of arms as thirty to forty, and that of the cirrus- 

 joints as twenty-three. He noticed it again in 1805 ; 3 while in 1816 Lamarck 

 established the species Comatida multiradiata, i under which he placed Asterias 

 multiradiata, Linn., with a (?) appended. He described it as having fifty to sixty, 

 or even more arms, and referred to the Indian seas as its locality. Some years later 

 Goldfuss 5 applied the name Comatida multiradiata, Lamarck, to a many-armed 

 specimen, the distichal and palmar series of which each consisted of three joints, with the 

 axillary a syzygy. Midler, 6 regarding this form as " die zuerst genau beschriebene," 

 proposed in 1841 to retain the specific name multiradiata for it alone, and on the 

 basis of Troschel's examination of the Paris collection, he published a description of 

 Comatida multiradiata, Lamarck, under the name of Alecto multiftda. He distinguished 

 this type from that of Goldfuss by its palmar and post-palmar series each consisting of 

 but two joints, with the axillary not a syzygy. He went to Sweden, however, in the 



1 Systema Nature, ed. 10, Holrnia;, 1758, t. ii. p. 663. 



2 K. Svensk. Vetensk. Akad. Handl., Ar 1783, t. iv. p. 241. 



» Dissertatio, sistens species cognitas Asteriarum, Lundoe, 1805, p. 35. 



4 Hist. Nat. des Anim. sans vertebres, Paris, 1816, t. ii. p. 533. 



6 Petrefacta Germanise, t. i. p. 202, pi. Isi. fig. 2. ° Monateber. d. h. irreuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, 1841, p. 188. 



