2 ME. P. II. CARPENTER ON THE GENUS ACTINOMETRA. 



Linck included three genera in this family, or, as he called it, " Classis." The first of 

 these he named AeKaVfij/joc, to indicate " stellam marinam decern caudis crinitis radi- 

 antem ; " and he referred to it three species : — (1) The " Crocea zaffarana Neapolitaiiorum," 

 or leKalaavaKTwoei^c of Pahius Columua 1, whose description he quotes ; (2) the Decempeda 

 Coniubiensium ofLlhuyd", which Linck figured and named "Stella ge/ca/ci-ij/toc rosacea;" 

 and (3) the " Ae/v-uici'.iiuoc fimbriata Barrclieri " -*, which was named by Liuck harbata, as 

 he supposed it to be difl'crcnt from the other two. All three, however, are really identical, 

 being simply local varieties of one and the same species, viz. the British Antedon rosacea, 

 or the Comatula medlterranea of Lamarck. Thus, Fabius Columna described the 

 Neapolitan variety, and Barrelier another obtained at the mouth of the Tiber, while Llhuyd 

 based his description upon specimens found upon the coast of Cornwall near Penzance. 



Linck's second genus, the Tpto-KaiceKajci'ij^oc, was based upon a specimen with thirteen 

 arms, previously described by Pctiver'* as " Slella chineims;" this specimen, however, 

 was suspected by Linck to have been mutilated. His third genus he called " Cajmt- 

 Mediisce" and described it as including those specimens which " ex centre corporis parvi 

 umbonatique per quinque truncos primum bifidi, mox nuUo constanti numero multifidi, 

 in 60 et plurcs surculos gcuiculatos rectos simplices abeunt, quos gracilescentes tibrillaj 

 alise pilorum instar vestiunt." 



Linck referred two species to this genus, viz. Caput Medusa cinereum and C. bninnmn ; 

 and he gave good figures of both (tab. xxi. n. 33, and tab. xxii. n. 34), from which it 

 may be determined with tolerable certainty that they represent species now known to 

 belong to two different types among the Comatulae — namely, to the genera Antedon 

 and Actinometra respectively. 



(§2) Although Llhuyd ^ and after him Bosinus*, had explicitly pointed out the 

 relationship between the recent ComatuUie and the fossil Crinoidca, and although Linck, 

 while supporting and repeating Llhuyd's views, had clearly differentiated the former 

 from the Asteroidea and Ophiuroidea, yet Linnaeus ^ instead of adopting the more 

 correct views of some of his predecessors as to the true relations of the Crinoidca, was 

 so misled by the jointed structure of their stems as to rank them among zoophytes in 

 his genus Isis, whilst he grouped the Comatulidae, together with all the other Starfisli, 

 under one common name Asterias. Linck's three species of Decacncmus were rightly 

 regarded by him as identical ; and he placed them, together with Petiver's Stella chinensis, 

 in one species, Asterias pectiaata, to which he also referred a specimen previously 

 described by Betzius *. We now know, however, that this last is an Actinometra, dif- 



' Phj-tobasanus, sivo Plantarum aliquot Histoiia. Ncapoli, 1592. 



= Eduabdi LriDi ' Lithophylacii Eritanuici Ichnographia ' p. 149. Londini, 1G99. 



' Jacodi B.vrrelikui ' Pluntic per Galliam, HLspamam et Italiam obscrvata;' Paris, 1714, p. 131. 



" ' Gazophj'lacium Naturae et Artis,' Londini, 1711 ; and also ' Aquatilium animalium Amboinensium Iconos et 

 Nomina,' 1713. 



' Prxlcctio de Stellis marinis Occani Brit, nee non de Asteriarum, Entrochorum, et Encrinorum Origine, pp. 149- 

 155, Oxford, 1733. 



^ Tcntaminia de Lithozois ac Lithopliytis olim marinis, jam vcro subtcrraneis, prodromus ; sive do stellis marinis 

 quondam, nunc fossilibus, disquisitio. Hamburg, 1719. 



'' 'Systema Natura3,' cditio dccima tertia (Lipsix, 178S), pars vi. p. 31GG. 



s Nova Acta, Stockholm, 1783, p. 234, n. 12. 



