MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CKINOIDS. 23 



The specimens of the two last, which were the only new species described by 

 Linck, were in the collection of Albert Seba and are now probably in the St. Peters- 

 burg museum. 



Linck appears to have admitted the close connection shown by Llhuyd between 

 the comatuliils and the fossil crinoids; but he had nothing to add to Llhuyd's lucid 

 exposition of the facts, so he contented himself with reprinting his dissertation as 

 an appendix. 



In spite of the advances which had been made, the next step was a wholesale 

 retrogression and threw the study of the group into utter chaos; for Lmne m 

 1758 placed the comatulids with the starfish and the ophiuroids in the genus Asterias, 

 recognizing only two species, both composites, and neither includuig any reference 

 to the species represented by the respective type-specimens. 



Hb first species is: 



Asterias pectinata = Antedon iifida + A. mediterranea+ CapiUaster multiradiata; 



but. the type-specimen (at Lund) is not even generically identical with any of these 

 supposed synonyms, being of the species now known as Comalula pectirmta: this 

 discrepancy is suggested by the locality given, Indian Seas, whereas Antedon iifida 

 (as known to Linne) is from Cornwall, A. mediterranea from Italy, and Capillaster 

 multiradiata from China. Wo have to thank Retzius, Miiller, and P. H. Carpenter 

 for redescriptions of the specimen which Linn6 had in mind when he pemied his 

 Asterias pectinata. 



Limit's second species is: 



Asterias multiradiata=hi3ick's Caput-Medusse cinereum + h\s C. Irunnum, 



the first of which is undoubtedly a Lamprometra, possibly, as Miiller supposed, L. 

 palmata, though more likely L. protectus; the second undoubtedly one of the Comas- 

 teridae, possibly ComantJius bennetti. Retzius and Carpenter have shown, however, 

 as in the case of the preceding, that the type-specimen is generically different from 

 either, and Asteinas (Capillaster) multiradiata has been restricted accordingly. 



In 1761 the great Dutch collector, Albert Seba, figured and described two multi- 

 brachiate comatulids, one of which was said to have come from Mexico, but both of 

 which probably came from the East Indies. 



In the twelfth edition of his work (1767) Lum6 added to the synonymy of 

 Asterias pectinata Seba's Stella marinis polyactis, sen Luna marina, said to have 

 come from Mexico (undoubtedly a Himerometra) , and his Luna marina altera 

 (which is probably one of the Comasteridse) , of unknown habitat. In 1758 out of 

 the five references which he cites under Asterias pectinata, four are to 10-armed 

 forms {Antedon) and one to a 13-armed specimen (the Stella chinensis perlegens of 

 Petiver); of the two additional references given in 1767, one of the figures (Stella 

 marinis polyactis) shows 29 arms, the other (Lu,na marina altera) 37. With this 

 heterogeneous concept in muid it is no wonder that he concludes his discussion of 

 Asterias multiradiata by saying that it is possibly only a variety of A. pectinata. 



In 1777 Pemiant restricted the Linnean Asterias pectinata by describmg his 

 Asterias bifida and A. decacnemus, both of which, however, represent the same 



