678 DE. W. B. CARPENTEE ON THE STEUCTURE, PHYSIOLOGY, AND 



Antedon but to the genus Euryale. Hence it is obvious that in regard alike to Llhutd's 

 priority in time, and to the greater accuracy of his conclusion, we are justified in 

 claiming for our own countryman the merit of having been the first to take up this 

 important position. 



Eetuming now to the history of Antedon, we find it characteristically described as a 

 peculiar type of "Sea-stars" in the remarkable work of Li>'CKius'; who seems to have 

 been the first to attempt to bring together the large number of forms of this group 

 acquired by the industry of collectors, and to endeavour to systematize them. Although 

 his principles of classification were far from sound, and conducted him to an arrangement 

 which was in many respects erroneous, yet they led him to erect Antedon (of which six 

 species regarded by him as distract are described under three generic names) into a group 

 distinct not only from the Asteriadce, but also from the Ophiurida', with which they have 

 been associated by many later systematists. To this group (termed by him a Class, but 

 rather in reality a Family) he assigned the name Crinitce sive Comatce Stella-, on account 

 of the haii-y appearance given to the arms by the " capillary fibres " with which they are 

 fringed ; thus distinctly foreshadowing the name Comatula conferred upon this generic 

 type by Lahaeck. The first of his genera he named AeKuKvrifioc, to indicate its possession 

 of ten radiatmg caudcB crinitce ; and he ranges under it three species, (1) the Crocea 

 Znffarana Neaiwlitanorum, or ieKa^aavaKTivoei^m of Fabius Colujina, (2) the Bosacea 

 or Becempeda Cornuhiensium of Llhutd, and (3) the Barbata ovjimbnata of Bakreliek. 

 Of the first he quotes Columxa's description without copying his figure ; of the second 

 he gives a figure, which though imperfect, is sufficient for its identification, and speaks 

 of it as distinguishable from the preceding only by its inferiority of size, Columna's Sea- 

 star being often a foot in diameter, whilst the diameter of Llhutd's does not surpass 

 6 or 7 inches ; of the third also he gives a figure, which shows it to be only another 

 variety of the preceding, at the same time quoting the description given by Bakkeliek^ 

 who partook of the misapprehension of Columxa respecting the use of the dorsal cirrhi, 



' Jo^A^-^^IS Hexbici Lrs-CKii Lipsicnsis ' De Stellis ilariuis liber singularis. Tabularum ^linearum Figiiras 

 exemplis nati^■is apprimc similes et Autoris Obserrationes disposuit ct illustravit Christiaxus Gabkiel Pisciter 

 Regiomontanus.' IJps'w, 1733. — This work deserves special notice on many accounts. Its author, a Phar- 

 macopolist at Leipzig, was a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, to the President and FeUows of which it is 

 dedicated. The large number of types which are described and admirably figured testify to the industry and 

 zeal of its author as a Collector, who seems to have spared neitlier pains nor expense in procm-ing specimens 

 from every quarter of the world ; and it is peculiarly interesting to find that a main purjjose of the formation 

 of this coUeetion was to throw light on the exact nature of those Fossil remains, whose general resemblance to 

 the Sea-stars was clearly enough recognizable, but whose precise aflmitics could not be predicated with certainty 

 from anything then known. "In terris per omnem naturalis historic mcnioriam nihil repertum simile; in 

 mari analogiam pr.'C se ferebant viventia aUqua, sub latiore stcUarum marinarum genere, ramorum insectorum 

 charactere differentia. Sed nuUa hujus generis reperiebatur species, cui quantitas et articulorum configuratio 

 congruebant. Qurerenda; stellie novoe erant, ut instituta cum petrefactis ruderibus coUatione, et genus et prima;va 

 forma elucerent." (Preface.) — -The binomial nomenclature, moreover, is employed more systematically by 

 LiN'CKirs, than by any other pre-Linna?an author with whom I am acquainted. 



- Bakrelieki, Jacobi, ' Plantso per Galliam, Hispaniam, et Italiam observatx.' rans. 1714. 



