216 ACTIXOMF.TRA PERONII. 



quite distinct type under the name Comatula multiradiata 

 Mull. This specific name was first employed by Linnaeus 

 for various Comatulae (including one in the Retzian collect- 

 ion) which he described , together with the other Starfish- 

 es , under the common name Asierias '). Lamarck *) 

 also employed it to designate some many-armed Comatulae 

 from the voyage of Peron and Lesueur in 1803; and a 

 remarkable specimen in the Bonn Museum was referred to 

 the same type by Goldfuss ') who afterwards dissected it. 

 This , however , may be left out of consideration altogether 

 as no example presenting such very remarkable peculiar- 

 ities as were described by Goldfuss has been met with dur- 

 ing the last fifty years , and his type is now generally 

 known by the name Comaster ^). 



The name multiradiata is such an exceedingly natural 

 one for a many-armed Comattda, that its very general 

 application to any type with more than ten arms is hardly 

 to be wondered at , and the determination of its proper 

 limits is by no means an easy process. 



The first steps in this direction were taken by Muller ^) 

 who redescribed one of Lamarck's original specimens under 

 the specific name multifida , leaving multiradiata for the 

 Refzian specimen with which he grouped some Comatidae 

 in the Paris Museum from the voyage of Peron and Lesueur 

 (1803) , and a fine specimen brought from the Moluccas 

 in 1829 by Quoy and Gaimard. He also spoke of a spec- 

 imen in the Bonn Museum by the same name , and said 

 that it ))stimmt audi durch den Besitz der Syzygien an 

 den Axillaria der Arme rait Co7n. multiradiata Retz." 



I have been courteously permitted to examine all these 

 specimens at Lund, Paris, and Bonn, a privilege for which 

 1 am much indebted to Professors Quennerstedt, Perrier 



1) Systema Naturae, editio decima turtia (Lipsiae 17S8), pars VI, p. 31f)G. 



2) Systcme d'Animaux sans Vertcbres, 2rac Ed. (Paris, 1816), Tom. II p 531. 



3) Petrcfacta Gcrmaniac, I (üusseldorf, 1826—35), p. 302. 



4) .lourn Tjiiiii Sor. Zool. Vo^. XV. pp. éSl— 450. 



5) Abhandl. d. Berlin. Akad. 184'.), pp. 261, 262. 265 



Notes from the Leyclen JMizseuin , Vol. 111. 



