28 ME. P. II. CARPENTER ON THE GENUS ACTINOMETRA. 



2. O. echinoptera, on the other hand, has, according to Midler 1 , a very marked comh 

 on the oral pinnules. He says nothing, however, about the position of the month ; and I 

 have unfortunately not been able to examine the species for myself. 



3. According to Pourtales - the mouth is excentric in Com. meridionalis ; but he makes 

 no mention of a comb on the oral pinnules. If it should be absent in this species, and 

 also iu Com. rosea, while it is present in Phanogenia, in which the mouth is central, it 

 becomes obvious that the only external character, besides the shape of the calyx, on which 

 we can rely with any certainty in the determination of the generic position of any 

 Comatula, is the nearly central or the excentric position of the mouth. 



4. According to Midler ;1 there are only two radials in Act. rotalaria which are united 

 by a syzygium, while they bear the distichal axillaries directly ; and these are also syzy- 

 gial segments. Although, like Miiller, I examined Lamarck's original specimen of this 

 species, I cannot confirm the above statement. It is true that only two radials are visible 

 externally; but this is often the case in Comatula?, with a wide centrodorsal piece; and 

 I A\as quite unable to satisfy myself that they are united by a syzygium, as Miiller 

 describes, and as is the case with the second and third radials of Act. Solaris, Avhile I was 

 equally unable to determine a syzygial union between the two segments of which the 

 distichal series is composed. Lamarck's original specimen of this species in the Paris 

 Museum is wrongly labelled C. brevicirra, Troschel. 



5. The dry specimen of Act. fimbriate in the Paris Museum, from the voyage of 

 Peron and Lesueur, is labelled C. multiradiata, Lam. ; while Peynaud's original speci- 

 mens from the Strait of Sonde are labelled C. brevicirra, Trosch., together with Act. 

 rotalaria and the Vavas variety of Miiller' s C. parvicirra. 



6. In Jet. multijida the tertiary arms borne by the palmar axillaries may divide again 

 several times. In every case there are only two segments between each division, and all 

 the successive axillaries, like the palmar axillaries, have no syzygia. Although Miiller 

 mentions this in his description of the species, it is placed in his scheme in a group in 

 which the axillaries of the arms have syzygia. In reality, however, this is the case with 

 the distichal axillaries only. 



7. The type specimen of this last species does not exist in the Paris Museum under 

 that name, nor even under C. brevicirra, Troschel, which seems to have been used as 

 an equivalent for it ; but I believe that three small spirit-specimens from the voyage of 

 Peron and Lesueur in 1803, which arc classed, with two specimens of Act. pectinata, 

 under the name of C. simplex, are really those which were described by Miiller as 

 C. parvicirra. 



8. It will be noticed that Act. polymorpha has already appeared higher in the list as 

 a species in which palmars are not developed. In some individuals but few of the 10 

 primary arms bear axillaries ; so that the total number of arms is less than 20 (PI. II. 

 fig. 9) ; while in others all the primary arms divide again, and so do the resulting secon- 

 dary arms, so that the total number is little short of 40 (PI. II. figs. 10, 11). This is 

 very unusual ; for I only know of two other species which present the same kind of 



1 '(juttuug Comatula,' p. 14. " Loc. cit. No. 11, p. 355. 



3 ' Gattung Comatula, ' p. 20. 



