Morphology of Autedon rosacea. 21 



thh-d of the species of recent Criuoids, and yet the mouth in 

 this class is described as central by Vogt and Yung, without 

 any indication whatever that this position is not an absolutely 

 constant one in all species of Antedon, and does not, occur at 

 all in Actinometra. 



This error may be described as one of omission. The next 

 one which I shall consider is one of commission, and that of 

 a very definite kind, betraying either a most remarkable 

 neglect of Crinoid literature on tlie part of Messrs. Vogt and 

 Yung, or a deliberate refusal to give British naturalists the 

 credit which is justly their due. On p. 518 the authors 

 describe the young Crinoid as a " larve a forme de Pentacrine 

 (Perrier)." It is true that in the year 1884 Professor Perrier* 

 published the results of his researches into " I'Organisation de 

 I'animal aux trois phases : 1. de Cystide ; 2. de Pentacrine ; 

 3. de Comatule libre, mais non encore adulte," and that he 

 referred to " la phase pentacrinoide ; " but in attributing the 

 origination of this term to Professor Perrier, Messrs. Vogt and 

 Yung must be either totally unaware of, or have deliberately 

 resolved to ignore, the following facts. 



So long ago as the year 1836 Dr. J. V. Thompson f fur- 

 nished to the scientific world " the evidence of Pentacrinus 

 being the young of Comatulay In 1863 Allman % referred 

 to " the fixed Pentacrinus stage " of the young of Gomatula, 

 as described by J. V. Thompson. On the very first page of 

 Sir Wyville Thomson's memoir on the Embryogeny of Ante- 

 don rosacea^ he referred to the " Pentacrinoid " stage ; while 

 eleven pages of Dr. Carpenter's monograph ||, published in 

 1866, are devoted to the " General History of the Penta- 

 crinoid Larva," and the term " Pentacrinoid " recurs again 

 and again, both in this and in his three subsequent papers in 

 the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society,' published in 1876 

 and 1884 respectively. M. Sars (1869), Greeff(1876), and 



* " Sur le developpement des Comatules," Comptes Rendus, 1884, 

 t. xcviii. p. 444. 



t " Memoir on the Starfish of the Genus Comatula, demonstrative of 

 the Pentacrinus eitropceus being the Youiio- of our Indigenous Species/' 

 Edin. New Phil. Journ. 1836, vol. xx. p 297. The entire absence of any 

 reference whatever both to this and to the previous memoir of J. V. 

 Thompson's is a very striking omission in Vogt and Yung's monograph. 

 They are not even mentioned in the Bibliography, where, however, place 

 is found for Perrier's preliminary description of a new genus which he 

 withdrew in May 1885 ! 



X " On a Pre-brachial Stage in the Development of Comatula, and its 

 importance in relation to certain Aberrant Forms of Extinct Crinoids," 

 Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 1863, vol. xxiii. 



§ Phil. 'Trans. 1865, p. 513. 



II Ibid. 1866, pp. 726-737. 



