Comaster and Comatulidje. 181 



diagnosis given by Agasslz was worthless ; while (3) Canon 

 Norman has not told us what we are to understand by 

 Comatula multiradiata^ Lamarck." 



(1) Exactly, that was my argument. If it had been a new 

 discovery no blame would have attached to those who, 

 knowing Comaster to be earlier, use Actinonietra. 



(2) Worthless! It would be interesting to know what 

 old genera are sufficiently described to satisfy Mr. Bather's 

 requirements. 



(3) There was no call for me to do so. Carpenter has 

 taken great pains in the matter, and after examination of 

 types considers that Lamarck included two species under 

 Comatula muUiradiata ; both of these he places in Actino- 

 metra^ and makes the earlier-described Comaster, Agassiz (of 

 which this same Comatula multii^adiata was the type*), a 

 synonym of the later-described Actinometra — a course con- 

 trary to law and to justice. 



Mr. Bather's next statement is : — 



'* When the time arrives for splitting up the assemblage of 

 genera at present lumped together as Comatulidai, the name 

 Antedonidas sliould certainly be applied to that family in 

 which Antedon is placed. But while such different forms as 

 Thaumatocrinus, Atehcrinus, and Promachocrinus swell the 

 motley crowd, the name Comatulidas seems, from its very 

 want of meaning, the best adapted to embrace them." 



What does Mr. Bather imply by " want of meaning " ? I 

 must go to school again. Comatuiid^, I had supposed, meant 

 Comatulidas, and was = Comatulidfe, /. e. the genus Comatula 

 and its allies ; and as Coynatula is a synonym of Antedon^ 

 therefore Comatulida3 = Antedonid8e= J.n;eo?o« and its allies. 

 But Mr. Bather puts me right and tells me practically that 

 I must not believe any thing I see in print, and that when 

 Carpenter (' Challenger ' Ileport) gives and fully describes 

 (p. 6) the " Family Comatulida?," he is doing nothing of the 

 kind, even though the family is headed thus — " Family 

 Comatulldje, d'Orblgny, 1852; emend. P. H. Carpenter, 

 1888," and that I must not understand him as meaning what 

 he says, when, after referring to the three older genera of 

 the family. Carpenter writes : — " Three new genera have 

 been established by myself for new types of recent Comatuire, 

 viz. Atelecrinus, p7-omachocrinus, and Thaumatocrinus ] and 

 these six are all that could strictly he included t in the family 

 Comatulidse until quite recently." 



* In the ' Annals,' 1891, vol. vii. p. 387, last line but one from bottom, 

 I see I have made an error; — i'V " Group 3. typica " reof^ " Group 7. 

 Fimbriata." 



t The italics are mine. 



