A. H. CLAEK : THE CRINOIDS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN. 3 



satisfactory representation of an Indian comatulid ever published ; it represents 

 the Alecto bermetti of MUller. 



The justly celebrated Professor Johannes MtJLLER was the first to undertake 

 a really serious study of the recent crinoids. He re-examined the Linnsean types 

 at Lund, and the Lamarckian types at Paris, and studied the collections in 

 several other of the continental museums, more particularly those at Berlin and 

 Leyden. As a result of his labours, we find in 1849, the date of publication of 

 his complete monograph, twenty-seven species credited to the East Indian faunal 

 area, of which number four have subsequently proved to be synonyms, leaving 

 a total of twenty-three species definitely known from that region. 



Nothing new was pubhshed in reference to the Indian crinoid fauna until 

 1858 when Schulze recorded two stalked species belonging to the Pentacrinitidse , 

 but did not describe them. 



In 1866 BoHLSCHE described a specimen of Comanthiis bennetli which had 

 come from the Loyalty Islands, and Loven described the peculiar Phanogenia 

 ( = Comaster) typica which has no cirri in the adult stage. 



Two years afterward Professor Sven Lovi^n announced the startling discovery 

 of a recent cystid at Cape York which subsequently proved to be nothing but the 

 detached visceral mass of one of the Zygometridse, possibly Zygometra multiradiata. 

 This " Hyponome sarsii" of LoviN was the first zygometrid known; but in the 

 same year Professor Carl Semper introduced to science a second, the peculiar 

 Eudiocrinus ( " Ophiocrinus " ) indivisns, remarkable in possessing but five arms, 

 whereas all the other comatulids then known had at least ten. 



In 1875 Grube described three supposedly new comatulids from North 

 Borneo, all of which have since proved to be the same as previously known forms. 



Professor C. F. LtJTKEN was at this time interested in the comatulids, and 

 was studying the specimens contained in the large East Indian collections of the 

 Museum Godeffroy at Hamburg. He bestowed manuscript names upon many of 

 them, intending to describe them when opportunity offered. Unfortunately, he 

 never found time to do this. From the inclusion by him of many of these 

 names as nomina nuda in the various ' ' Catalogues ' ' of the Museum Godeffroy 

 and from the record of others who found them with duplicate specimens which 

 had been distributed by that Museum, he is now known to have originated twenty- 

 two names, nine of which are .synonyms of earlier names. Had he published his 

 descriptions, thirteen species would now be credited to him, four of which were 

 subsequently described by Carpenter, five by Hartlaub, and three by myself, 

 while the last is credited to LtJTKEN on the strength of a meagre diagnosis quoted 

 by Carpenter. 



In 1879 Edgar A. Smith descrihedComamla (=Stephanomefra) indica from 

 Rodriguez, and Philip Herbert Carpenter published his splendid memoir " On 

 the genus Actinometra ' ' in which he described a supposedly new species and 

 gave the morphological results of liis studies on material collected by Professor 

 Carl Semper in the Philippines. In 1881 Carpenter published the results of 



