DEVELOPJIENT OF ANTEDOX (COMATULA, LAMK.) EOSACEUS. G73 



early Crinoidal stage, from which I should myself bo prepared to take it up ; and thus 

 his Memoir on the Embryology of Anfcdon rosaceits, which has already appeared in tlie 

 Philosophical Transactions (18C5), will serve as the complement of my own. 



Before proceeding, however, to detail the results of my researches, T thinlc it right to 

 give a somewhat particular account of what has been already done by those who have 

 made a special study of Anfedon ; and also to mark out the principal stages in the pro- 

 gress of our aeneral knowledije, both of the true character of the Crixoidea as consti- 

 tuting one of the primary Ordinal subdivisions of the Class Echinodermata, and of the 

 relationship of the typical Crinoids to Antedon. It will appear in this Historical Sum- 

 mary (p. 682) why I have thought it right, in concurrence with tlie views of Dr. J. E. 

 Gkay'j Professor Wyville Tiiomso:?-, and the Eev. Alfred M. Norman^ to revert to 

 the generic name Antedon given to this type by Fremixville, in preference to using 

 either the designation ComafiiJa conferred upon it by T.aiiarck, under which it is much 

 more generally known, or that of Alecto given to it by Leach, which is used by the 

 Scandinavian Naturalists. 



II.— HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 



The earliest account of Antedon which I have been able to find, occurs in the ' Phy- 

 tobasanus'* of F^VBius Columna; an author who deserves to be commemorated for the 

 excellence of his descriptions of various plants and animals, and for the fidelity and 

 beauty of his delineations, which were engraved on copper and printed on the same 

 page with the letter press. The figure he gives^ of his leKoZaavaKrivoeiZric is so charac- 

 teristic as to enable me almost certainly to identify it with the species which forms the 

 subject of the present memoir ; indeed I do not think it has been since surpassed by any 

 figure not drawn from the animal in its natural position during life. I quote the words 

 in which this author commences his description, as indicating the remarkable abundance 

 of the specimens that fell under his notice, and the strong impression made upon him by 

 their beauty: — "Nova et perelegans est hujus Stellee forma, ab aliis omnibus differcns 

 nee adhuc descripta, nostro litori frequens, ita ut ncc ulla retrahantur retia, quin ipsis 

 implicata, et simul cum piscibus in foro etiam non inveniatur." He gives a very accurate 

 description of its jointed arms and of its dorsal cirrhi; but he fancied that the latter 

 were used to grasp food and to draw it into the mouth, which he erroneously supposed 

 to be at the central point from which they radiate. Of the soft visceral mass occupying 

 the ventral cavity of the cup, and having the mouth in its centre, he says, " ex adversa 

 parte corpus conspicitur rotundum, la3ve, molle, cujus interiora propter tenuitatcm con- 



' British Museum Catalogue of BritLsh Radiata, p. 28. 

 - Op. cit. 



= "On the Genera and Species of British Echinodcnnata," in Annals of Xatuial Histoiy, Crd scr. wA. xv. 

 p. 99 (Feb. 1865). 



* 9vToftaaavos, sive Plantarum aHquot Historia. Neapoli, ]r)92. 



' Sec p. 12 of the Apj'.cndix to the Phytobasanus, entitled " PLseiuni aliquot Plaiitarumquc iiovarum ULstoria." 



4 z 2 



