REPORT ON THE ASTEROIDEA. X1x 
In November and December 1840, and consequently only a few months later than 
Miller and Troschel’s preliminary paper above referred to, Gray’ published a synopsis of 
the genera and species of starfish. He divided the Asteroidea into two unnamed sections, 
one characterised by having four rows of ambulacral tube-feet, the other having two 
rows. ‘The first section contained one family, named “ Asteriade ;” the second section 
three families, named Astropectinidee, Pentacerotide, and Asterinide. . These four families 
comprised forty-five genera and nine subgenera, which were briefly defined by structural 
characters. his classification was republished as a separate work’ in 1866, with a few 
alterations and eight additional genera which had been described in the interim. 
In 1869 Perrier* published a valuable memoir on the pedicellarie of Asterids and 
Echinids. 
In 1875 Perrier* pointed out that the characters upon which the sectional divisions 
or families made by Miiller and Troschel and by Gray were based were insufficient and 
unsatisfactory. He insisted upon the importance of the pedicellariz: as a classificatory 
factor, and he divided the group into two unnamed divisions by means of the character 
of the pedicellarize and of the disposition of the ambulacral tube-feet. The first division 
was characterised by the presence of pedunculate forficiform or forcipiform pedicellariz, 
and a usually quadriserial arrangement of the ambulacral tube-feet ; the second division 
by sessile, pincer-formed, or valvate pedicellariz, and a usually biserial arrangement of 
the ambulacral tube-feet. The first division contained only one family, the “‘ Asteriade ;” 
the second division six families, the Echinasteridee, the ‘‘ Linckiade,” the Goniasteridx, 
the Asterinide, the Astropectinidze, and the Pterasteridee. These seven families embraced 
forty-five genera (forty-two recognised in the text), a number of Gray’s genera being 
absorbed or altered. Both families and genera were characterised by the structure of the 
skeleton. This work contains a careful revision of the species contained in the Museum 
d Histoire Naturelle of Paris, and supplemented by those in the British Museum. 
In 1878 Viguier® published an elaborate investigation on the Asterid skeleton, and 
propounded his discovery that in the mouth-ring of some starfishes the ambulacral plates 
were predominant, whereas in others the adambulacral plates were predominant. He 
also showed that a great range of variation occurred in the form of a plate which he called 
the ‘‘odontophore” (the basal interbrachial plate), as well as in the character of the 
mouth-plates, which he called teeth. 
1 A Synopsis of the Genera and Species of the Class Hypostoma (Astertas, Linneus), An. and Mag. Nat. 
Hist., 1840, vol. vi. p. 175. 
2 Synopsis of the Species of Starfish in the British Museum, London, 1866. 
’ Recherches sur les Pédicellaires et les Ambulacres des Astéries et des Oursins, Ann. Scz. Nat., 5e Série, 
t. xii, 1869, p. 197. 
* Révision de la Collection de Stellérides du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris (Archives de Zool. 
exper., t. iv. 1875, pp. 265-450 ; t. v. 1876, pp. 1-104, 209-304). 
5 Anatomie comparée du Squelette des Stellérides (Archives de Zool. eapér., t. vii. 1878, pp. 33-250, pls. 
V.-XV1.) 
