MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CEINOnJS. 33 



Cormiulamacronema Ptilomelra macronema. 



Comatula savignyi Heterometra sangmi. 



Cormtularotalaria Comatula rotalana 



Cormlulafimhriata CapillaaUr mulhradiata. 



Comatula elongata DkhromclrafiagcUata. 



Coirwtula parvidrra Comanthus parvxcma. 



Comatula japonica Comanthu^ japomca. 



Comatula flagellata Dichrometra flagdlata. 



Comatula timorensis Comanthus pan-xciTra. 



Comatula articulata Uparometra articulata. 



Comatula mumfida Commter mumjida. 



Comatula novm-guine^ Covuisternova^gmne^. 



Comatula henmlti ComMnthm hmnettu 



Actinometraimperialk Comatula Solaris. 



Actinometra vectinata Comatula pectxnata. 



ICapillaster sentosa. 

 Capillaster multiradiata. 



Actinometra wahlbergii Co,^nthus wahlbergu. 



Compter multiraduitus Comanthus bennetU. 



In addition to these described forms they gave a list of undescribed species, 



taking the names from labeled specimens in the Paris Museum. 



While we are not at present directly concerned except with the systematic 



history of the comatulids, it would be impossible to appreciate this properly without 



some idea of the relative progress made along other lines of study, and it is therefore 



fitting that some mention be made of the new era in the elucidation of the structure 



and development of the group which began in the year 1863. 



Adams in ISOO had caUed attention to the two apertures on the comatulid 



disk while in the years 1823-1826 P6ron, Gray, Leuckart, Meckel and Heusinger 



ndependently demonstrated, in varying degrees of completeness, the existence of a 



oiled di-estive tract. In 1835 Dujardin showed that the eggs of the comatulids 



ure borne externally on the pinnules and are not internal as in the other echmoderms, 



while in the same year J. V. Thompson demonstrated the stalked condition o the 

 voun- In 1843 Miiller made a valuable contribution to the knowledge of the struc- 

 ture of the comatulids in his classical memoir on the structure of Pentacnnvs caput- 

 medusx {Isocrinus astena) ; but the true understanding of the comatulid embryology, 

 development and structure may be justly said to date from the epoch-making 

 memoirs of Prof. George J. Allman, 1863 C'prebrachial' larval stage) _Prof. Sir C. 

 Wy^^e Thomson, 1865 (eariy development), and especially of Dr. William Ben- 

 jamin Carpenter, 1866 Qater development, history and structure) 



Canon Alfred Merie Norman in 1865 published the results of his researches on 

 British echinoderms, in which he foUowed Gray (1848) in the use of^n^.Jon in 

 preference to Comatula, at the same tbne changing tlie family name to Antedomd^e. 

 He described no new species, but he recognized, as Pennant and Fleming had done 

 two British species of the A. bifida type, Antedon rosacea (following Hemmg m tlie 

 use of Linck's name) and A. miUen, which latter he included on the authority of 



Sir Wyville Thomson. ^ ^,. , , r^ * ;, 



In the same year Mr. Alexamler Agassiz an.i Mrs. Elizabeth Gary Agassiz 



definitely made known the first species of the family Comastendffi. Comatula 



ind 



c 



are 



