Miscellaneous, 259 



that all the plants, whether with insects or with none, were equally 

 healthy. 



Some observers have recorded that there is a motion of the leaves 

 as well as of the glandular hairs in the effort to catch insects. Only 

 one fact was noticed bearing on this question : one leaf of a Drosera 

 Jiliformis had coiled over towards its upper surface from the apex, 

 and held an insect in its folds. — Froc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 

 July 20, 1875. 



On the Classification and Synonymy of the Stellerida. 

 By M. E. Perkiek. 



In presenting to the Academy the first part of my " Revision de 

 la Collection des Stellerides du Museum d'Histoire NatureUe de 

 Paris," I request permission to submit the principal results contained 

 in the portion of this work which is still to be published, and which 

 will include the investigation of five of the eight families into which 

 I divide the Stellerida known at the present day. These families 

 are the Goniasterida), Asterinidte, Pterasterida?, Astropectinidae, and 

 Brisingid*. As in the case of the first three families, the Asteriadfe, 

 Echinasteridse, and Linckiadae, it is especially from the various ar- 

 rangement of the skeletal pieces that the primordial characters have 

 been derived. With me the family Goniasterida3 corresponds to the 

 genera Astrogonimn, Goniodiscus, SteUaster, Asteropsis, Oreaster, and 

 Culcita, as defined by Miiller and Troschel ; but I have not been 

 able to adopt the limitation of these genera marked out by those 

 authors. Their genera Goniodiscus and Asteropsis especially are 

 eminently artificial. The genera created by Gray are, in some 

 respects, better, but too numerous ; the truth seems to me to lie 

 between the two. For the new limitation of the genera, I have 

 appealed sometimes to the form of the skeletal pieces, sometimes to 

 the arrangement of the pedicellarife, which had previously fur- 

 nished such clear characters in the family Asteriada^. T cannot, 

 however, accept the great genus Goniaster which Von Martens has 

 endeavoured to reestablish. Prom an examination of Gray's types 

 in the British Museum, his genera Randasia and Ilosea, which be- 

 long to this family, must fall ; the former contains only young Cul- 

 citce, the latter young Anthenece. 



The genera composing my family Asterinidse are Patiria, Gray 

 (restricted), Nepanthia, Gray (pars), Asteriva, Nardo, Pahnipes, 

 Linck, Disasteriiia (nov. gen.), and Ganeria, Gray. This last genus, 

 Avhich is but little known, is a most curious intermediate tyj)e be- 

 tween the Asterinidse and the Astropectinidse. The Ncpanthicehave 

 been wrongly regarded as Chcetasteres. I have ascertained that 

 Gray united in this genus two very distinct types — one identical 

 with CJicetaster in the family Astropectinidae, and another which, 

 by its imbricated skeletal pieces, belongs to the family Astcrinidte. 

 This latter is our Nepanthia. 



The family Astropectinidae includes the genera Chcutaster, Luidia, 

 Astropecten, Archaster, and Ctenodiscus. Each of the other two 

 families contains only a single genus. 



Beyond these modifications introduced into the systematic arrange- 



