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GENUS. COMATULA. 
An unattached animal, having a depressed orbicular body, formed of cal- 
careous plates enclosing the viscera. The mouth in the centre (capable of 
being elongated into a proboscis) surrounded by tentaculated arms or fingers 
composed of numerous joints; near the base of the body, below the fingers 
or arms, many jointed auxiliary side arms terminating in a hooked point. 
Observation. 
M. Lamarck applies the name Comatula (derived from coma, a lock of hair, 
in allusion to the resemblance the cluster of auxiliary side arms bear to it) as a 
generic name, to a series of animals once incorporated in the Lin. Gen. Asteria. 
Dr. Leacu applies the name Alecto to the same series of animals, describing 
three species in his Zoological Miscellanies. . Yet as his character is inferior in 
precision to that of Lamarck, as the name Alecto is, in its application by 
Dr. Leacu, simply equivalent to that of Comatula, as his generic character 
does not exhibit any new division of the genus Comatula, and as it seems 
desirable to avoid the unnecessary multiplication of scientific nomenclature, I 
have retained the latter. But as the characters given both by Dr. Leacn and 
Lamarck were drawn up from a comparison with the family Stelleridz, and do 
not allude to those parts of its organization which mark the link between it 
and the Crinoidea, I considered it necessary to furnish the above new generic 
character. 
The Comatulz are not very numerous, but considerably distributed through 
the various seas on our globe. 
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At first sight the observer acquainted with the formation of Pentacrinus 
Caput Meduse, will be struck with the resemblance the Comatule bear to 
the superior portion of that animal. The tentaculated fingers and auxiliary 
side arms bear so striking a resemblance, that we are at first led to suspect that 
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