682 DE. AY. B. CAEPEXTEE OX THE STEUCTUEE, PHYSIOLOGY, AND 



illustration in the fact that Lamarck, in the first edition of his ' Systeme cles Aniraaux 

 sans Vcrtebres ' (1801), ranged them, as Lix\j:rs had done, among his "Polypes a 

 rayons coralligenes," by the side of Gorgonia, Umhelhdaria, and Fcmmtula ; apparently 

 under the influence of the original suggestion of Ellis, and of the erroneous surmise of 

 GUETTAED, who, however, nowhere goes so far as to affirm that the branching arms of 

 his " Palmier marin " actually bear Polypes. It is not a little surprising that, with the 

 very specimen of the recent Pcntacrinus Caput-Medusce described by Guettard under 

 his eyes in the Museum at the Jardin des Plantes, Lamarck should have failed to recog- 

 nize its close relationship to Antcdon, a type which, as we shall presently see, specially 

 attracted his attention. 



The first among post-Linuean zoologists who recognized the claim of this form of 

 Sea-star to a distinct generic rank, on account of that difference from all others in its 

 plan of structure which had been recognized by Lliiuvd and Linck, seems to have been 

 M. Fremixyille', who in 1811 thus clearly defined the genus, to which he gave the 

 designation Antcdon : — " Animal libre, a corps discoide, calcaire en dessus, gelatineux 

 en dessous, environne de deux rangees de rayons articules, pierreux, perces dans leur 

 largeur d'un trou central; ceux du rang superieur plus courts, simples, et d'egale 

 grosseur dans toute leur longueur ; ceux du rang inferieur plus longs, allant en dimi- 

 nuant dc la base a la pointe, et garnis dans toute leur longueur d'appendices alternes 

 egalement articules ; bouche infcrieure et centrale ; " — referring for his illustration to 

 the figure in the ' Encyclopedic Methodique ' (pi. cxxiv. fig. 6), whicli obviously repre- 

 sents the Stella decacnemos rosacea of Lixck. Shortly afterwards (1814), and apparently 

 in ignorance of Fremixville's definition, Dr. Leach characterized this type under the 

 generic name Alecto". Both these designations, therefore, have a preferential claim to 

 that of Comatula, which was not applied to the genus by L.\marck until the publication 

 of the second edition of his ' Animaux sans Vertebres ' in 1816. This claim was recog- 

 nized in regard to Alecto by Cuvier, who gave this name the preference to Comatula ; 

 and also at one time by Professor Joii. Muller, who substituted Alecto for Comatula in 

 many of his communications to the Berlin Academy ; though he afterwards abandoned 

 it in favour of Comatula (in ignorance, as it would seem, of the characterization of the 

 genus by Fremixville), the name Alecto having been in the mean time assigned to a 

 genus of PoLTZOA established by Lamouroux, and having come to be generally received 

 as its designation. Professor Mcller's adoption of the name Alecto seems to have led 

 to its employment by Scandinavian Naturalists, who have continued to use it, notwith- 

 standing its abandonment by Professor Joii. Muller. It is clear, however, that if we 

 are to put aside L.uiaeck's name on the ground of priority, we must go back, not to 

 Alecto, but to Antedon ; and as Frejiixville's definition of the genus is at least as correct 

 as that of Lamarck, it would be contrary to the rules of Zoological Xomenclature, as 

 now understood and acted on, to pass it by. Notwithstanding the appropriateness of 



' Xouvcaii Bullotiu cks Sciences, Socicte riiilomatbiquc, torn. ii. p. 340. 

 ' Zoological Jlisccllanics, vol. ii. j). 02. 



