14 MR. P. H. CAEPENTEE ON THE GENUS ACTINOMETEA. 



withdrew it in favour of Comattda 1 , the" Knopf," or centrodorsal piece of which was 

 described by him as an " Ueberrest der verkiimmerten Saule," while, like his prede- 

 cessors, he mentioned the absence of basals. The existence, however, of external basals, 

 both in Solanocrmus and in Comaster, led him to regard them, like Midler, as generically 

 identical ; and he used the name Comaster for this type in preference to Solanocrinus, 

 as it " bezieht sich nicht nur auf einen lebend und vollstandig bekannten Typus, sondern 

 druckt auch die Veiwandtschaft richtig, wie Solanocrinus unrichtig, aus." About the 

 same time D'Orbigny 2 , and, a few years later Pictet 3 , transferred the name Comatula to 

 this last-mentioned type, in which the basals appear externally ; while they revived 

 Linck's name Decacncmus (or, as they named it, Decameros) for the Antedon of De Fre- 

 minville and the Alecto of Leach. They characterized the genus as only differing from 

 Comatula, in their sense, in the total absence of the five basals, so that the radials 

 rest directly upon the centrodorsal piece. Fortunately, however, this peculiar inversion 

 of the nomenclature employed by Midler was not destined to last ; for in Bronn's 

 ' Klassen und Ordnungen des Thierreichs ' 4 , all the above genera are united into one, 

 Comatula, which with Glenotremites and another doubtful fossil constitute the family 

 Comatulkke. Saccocoma and MarsupUes are restored to the places originally assigned to 

 them by Midler, in special groups, Costata and Tessellata respectively, among the 

 unstalked Crinoids ; Avkile Eugeniacrinus, which Goldfnss regarded as nearly related to 

 Solanocrinus, is placed with a few similar forms in a family Eugeniacrinidae, which, toge- 

 ther with the Pentacrinidae and Apiocrinida?, make up the group Articulata of Midler. 



(§ 11) The family Cornatulidse was considerably enlarged a few years later by Du- 

 jardin and Hup6 s , who included in it, as D'Orbigny and Pictet had already done, not only 

 the tribes Comatuliens and Saccocomiens, but also the Eugeniacriniens, which both the 

 above authors had ranked among the stalked Crinoids, while MarsupUes, which they 

 referred to the Cornatulidse on account of its calyx being free, was transferred to the 

 Cyathocrinidae by Dnjardin, who could " ne voir qu'un caractere secondaire dans 

 l'absence d'une tige chez plusieurs de ces Crinoides." He distinguishes the three tribes 

 as follows : — "Nos trois tribus seront suffisamment caracterisees : la premiere, cede des 

 Eugeniacriniens, par son calice adherent ou pedoncule, jamais libre ; les deux autres, 

 dont le calice est libre a l'etat adulte, se distinguent parce que celle des Comatubens 

 porte cirrhes ou rayons dorsaux, dont la derniere, celle des Saccosomiens, est censee 

 depourvue." 



The position of Eugeniacrinus does not concern us at present. Let us now investigate 

 the species included by Dujardin in the tribe Comatnliens. Under this head he ranks 

 three genera, viz. Comatula, Lam., Actinometra, Midi., and Comaster, Ag., using the 

 latter name in the sense in which it was employed by Midler and Rcenier, namely as 

 equivalent to Solanocrinus. Dnjardin's genus Comatula, however, is not precisely 

 equivalent to that of Midler, who included in it the two genera or subgenera Alecto and 



1 Lethaea geognostica, iii ,c Auflage, 1851, Theil iv. p. 133, and Thcil v. p. 177. 



- Cours element, de Paleontol. et de Geol. stratigraph. 1S50-1852, vol. '2, i. pp. 138, 139. 



s Traite de Paleontol, (Paris, 1857) vol. iv. p. 288. 4 Band ii. Aktinozoen (1SG0), p. 233. 



5 Hist. Nat, des Zoophytes, Echinodermes, (Paris, 1SG2) p. 186. 



