DEVELOPMEXT OF ANTEDON (COMATULA, LAl^IK.) ROSACEUS. G77 



his own words. Aftor describing nine specimens of different kinds of recent Starfish, 

 he proceeds (^ xviil.) as follows: — ''Inter has decern, turn ob elegantiam, turn quod 

 maximc rara sit, primas tenet, quae decimo loco exhibctur, decempeda Conmbiensium ; 

 sou Stella rubra loricata, claviculato modiolo ; quiiiis radiis constans, pennatis ab exortu 

 bifidis. In Cornubia juxta I'ensans cum untecedentc reperimus, scd longinquo maris 

 refiuxu. A Stella decem radiorum Columns, si diversa sit, parvitate prscscrtini dis- 

 tinguenda est. CoLUJiNA enim suaj Stelhe pedalem tribuit longitudinem, cum nostra 

 sex aut scptem uncias non exsuperet." With this Decempeda ComuUenmnn, the Stella 

 AeKaicvti^oc rosacea of Linck, our own Antcdon rosaceus, Lliiuyd afterwards (§ xxx.) 

 compares a fossil " e fodinis Glocestrensibus," and specifics the following as the points 

 of similarity: — "Videmus enim (1), modiolam esse utrique ; (2) modiolo appendentes 

 claviculas aut capreolos ; (3) quinos radios, a primo exortu bilidos ; (4) articulorum 

 cujuslibet radii commissuram loricatam; (5) denique, radiis ab inferior! parte articu- 

 latira achiascentes aristas. Il/sce visis, Stellaiu decemjpcdam kqiideam, aut fossUcm, 

 liKHC lajjidem jjromaiciarc, nemo, oinnor, diihitalit. (§ xxxi.) Fatemur nihilominus, 

 quoad modiolorum figuram, multum interessc discriminis, ciim lapidea Stella quasi 

 ansellam habeat stellatam, ubi altera scutulum; et banc majoris esse molis marina. 

 Verum ha) notte aliam tantum speciem inferunt, genus non tollunt. Concesso itatjue, 

 hunc lapidem decempedam esse ; comperimus tandem Astcriam nonnullam niliil aliud 

 fore, quam decempedoD modiolum ; quod ex hoc ipso specimine mauifestum est. . Dixi 

 nonnullam, quoniam varise dautur Asterise, earumque aliquot Stellarum, quas coriaceas 

 diximus, vertebras exprimere alias docuimus, et ex Xo. 19, ubi Asterite parvse cum 

 Asterisci ossiculis denudatis conferuntur, propemodum constare arbitror." In the same 

 method of careful and intelligent comparison he proceeds in subsequent sections to sliow 

 that the Encrimis of Lachmuxdus is similarly related to his I)ecemj)eda ; and although 

 he seems to have been far from comprehending the true character of the stems of the 

 Crinoidea (no recent pedunculate type of the group having been known to him), yet I 

 think that no one who peruses the passages I have quoted can refuse him the credit of 

 having — not as a mere guess, but on the sound basis of anatomical correspondence — 

 distinctly predicated the -ntimate relationship between our vcccnt Antcdon and the fossil 

 CkixoIdea ; a relationship that was subsequently overlooked by Zoologists of the highest 

 eminence, and has only within a comparatively recent period come to be generally 

 admitted. 



The credit of ha\dng explicitly pointed out that the Ceixoidea, far from belonging to 

 the Vegetable kingdom, arc true Animals, closely approximating in structure to the 

 existing types known as " Sea-stars," is assigned by MM. Koxixck and Lio Hox, as also 

 by MM. Blaixville and Dujardix, to Ilosixus'. Xot only, however, was his treatise on 

 the subject posterior by sixteen years to that of Lliiuyd, but his conclusion was much 

 less exact; his approximation of the Crinoidea having been not to tlie genus 



' ' Tentaminis de litliozois ac lithophytis oliui mai inis, jam vcio subtcrraiicis, prodromus, sivc dc stellis 

 marinis quondam, nunc fossilibus disquisitio.' Jlamburr/h, 1719. 



