2 ME. P. H. CAEPENTEE ON THE GENUS ACTINOMETEA. 



Liuck included three genera in this family, or, as he called it, " Classis." The first of 

 these he named Ae/caKvij/ioq, to indicate " stellam marinam decern caudis crinitis radi- 

 antem ; " and he referred to it three species : — (1) The " Crocea zaffarcma Neapolitanorum" 

 or 8e/caSa<TuaKT(>'oei£)1c of Fabius Columna x , whose description he quotes ; (2) the Decempeda 

 Cornubiensium of Llliuyd 3 , Avhich Linck figured and named " Stella Se/ca/ci')),uoc rosacea ; " 

 and (3) the " Ae«:aKv»j/uoc Jtmbriata Barrelieri " 3 , which was named by Liuck barbata, as 

 he supposed it to be different from the other two. All three, however, are really identical, 

 being simply local -varieties of one and the same species, viz. the British Antedon rosacea, 

 or the Comatula mediterranea of Lamarck. Thus, Fabius Columna described the 

 Neapolitan variety, and Barrelier another obtained at the mouth of the Tiber, while Llliuyd 

 based his description upon specimens found upon the coast of Cornwall near Penzance. 



Linck's second genus, the T pianaileKUKv^oc, was based upon a specimen with thirteen 

 arms, previously described by Petiver 4 as " Stella chinensis ;" this specimen, however, 

 was suspected by Linck to have been mutilated. His third genus he called " Caput- 

 Medusce," and described it as including those specimens which " ex centro corporis parvi 

 umbonatique per quiuque truncos primum bifidi, mox nullo constanti nurnero multifidi, 

 in 60 et plurcs surculos geniculatos rectos simpliccs abeunt, quos gracilescentes fibrilkc 

 arise pilorum instar vestiunt." 



Linck referred two species to this genus, viz. Caput Medusae cinereum and C. brnnnum; 

 and he gave good figures of both (tab. xxi. n. 33, and tab. xxii. n. 31), from which it 

 may be determined with tolerable certainty that they represent species now known to 

 belong to two different types among the Coinatuke — namely, to the genera Antedon 

 and Actinometra respectively. 



(§2) Although Llliuyd 5 , and after him Bosinus 1 ', had explicitly pointed out the 

 relationship between the recent Comatulae and the fossil Crinoidea, and although Linck, 

 while supporting and repeating Llhuyd's views, had clearly differentiated the former 

 from the Asteroidca and Ophiuroidea, yet Linnaeus 7 , instead of adopting the more 

 correct views of some of his predecessors as to the true relations of the Crinoidea, was 

 so misled by the jointed structure of their stems as to rank them among zoophytes in 

 his genus Isis, whilst he grouped the Comatulidas, together with all the other Starfish, 

 under one common name Asterias. Linck's three species of Decacnemus were rightly 

 regarded by him as identical ; and he placed them, together with Petiver's Stella chinensis, 

 in one species, Asterias peclinata, to which he also referred a specimen previously 

 described by Betzius 8 . We now know, however, that this last is an Actinometra, dif- 



1 Phytobasanus, sivc Planfcarum aliquot Historia. Neapoli, 1592. 



- Eduaedi Luidi ' Lithophylacii Britanniei Icknographia ' p. 149. Londini, 1699. 



'■' Jac ib] Bakeelieei ' Plantae per Galliam, Hispaniain ct Italiam observatrc ' Paris, 1714, p. 131. 



4 ' Gazophylacium Natura: et Artis,' Londini, 1711 ; and also ' Aquatilium animalium Aniboincnsiurn Ioones ct 

 Nomina,' 1713. 



5 Prsclcctio de Stellis marinis Oceani Brit, nee non de Asteriarum, Entrocliorum, et Encrinorum Origine, pp. 149- 

 155, Oxford, 1733. 



c Tontaminis do Litliozois ae Lithopbytis olini marinis, jam vero subterraneis, prodromus ; sive de stellis marinis 

 quondam, nunc fossilibus, disquisitio. Hamburg, 1719. 



7 'Cystoma Natural,' editio decima tertia (Lipsire, 1783), pars vi. p. 3100. 

 s Nova Acta, Stockholm, 17S3, p. 234, n. 12. 



