22 ECHINOIDEA. II. 



including the last mentioned species Phormosovia rigidum, the Pli. aster ias was necessarily the last of 

 them — I did not sav the last namedx. That the characters on which the genus Kamptosoma was 

 founded appear to Professor Agassiz most trivial , is, of course, a matter of slight importance, since 

 he accepts the genus. In ni}- opinion the structure of the ambulacra in this genus (which character is 

 mentioned in the diagnosis besides the characters of spines and pedicellariae) is a highly interesting 

 feature, and even Professor Agassiz himself later on in the description of Kamptosoma iiidisfiiictiiui 

 does not evidently think this feature so very trivial. — As regards the species indistinctum^ it is to 

 be regretted that Professor Agassiz does not say a word about the characters by which it is disting- 

 uished from the species asterias. On p. 177 (Part I) I stated that after a renewed examination of the 

 specimens from St 272 I thought it unjustifiable to separate them from K. asterias as a new species; 

 it might not have been quite inappropriate therefore to point out the characters on which the new 

 species was established. Until these specific characters are made known I must regard A', iiidistiintiim 

 as synon\mous with A', asterias. 



To enter on a renewed discussion of the genus Hygrosoma and its delimitation from Pliormo- 

 soma, on account of Professor Agassiz' remarks on that subject (p. 85 — 86), I deem unnecessary, since 

 Professor Doderlein has accepted my view thereon and given most careful and elaborate descriptions 

 of both genera, to which I may simph- refer. (Op. cit p. 125, 136.) 



After describing the changes in the apical system due to age in P/iormosonia liispidiiin Professor 

 Agassiz says (p. 95): It is this extraordinary change in the anal s}stem which I had observed in 

 the abactinal parts of the test, which has prompted Dr. Mortensen to credit me with the most extra- 

 ordinarx' ignorance of the rudimentar\" embryological data, many of which I was the first to disco\er. 

 That this remarkable intercalation exists there is not the least doubt, and it naturally suggests in old 

 .specimens a flow of the anal plates into the interambulacnun, similar to the flow of the ambulacral 

 plates of the corona into the Ijuccal plates of the actinal system . — I must answer to this statement 

 that I have not at all credited Professor Agassiz with any ignorance of embryological facts, bait only 

 criticised his statements in the Rlake»-Echiuoidea (p. 32) on the development of the \oung Phormosovia 

 placenta, and I certainly think my criticism completely justified (Part I. p. 174— 175). Professor Agassiz 

 himself now agrees (p. 96) that his statement there of the formation of the buccal plates was erroneous, 

 viz. that they are ^separated from the coronal plates, and are developed, as I (Agassiz) have shown 

 in the same manner as the imbricating plates of the Cidarida;, independenth' of the coronal jilates; 

 new plates forming on the distal surface of the aclinostomc, which are intercalated between the old 

 plates and the coronal plates^. That Professor Agassiz has himself found out, before m\ criticism 

 had appeared, that this was a mistake, does not make this ])art of \\\\ criticism unjustified. I might 

 have added that the conclusion necessarily deri\ed from the statement quoted, that in the Cidarida: 

 also the buccal plates should originate in this way, is not less erroneou.s, as Professor Agassiz will 

 certainly also agree. 



Concerning the formation of the interambulacral plates, Profes.sor Agassiz continues with the 

 following statement (loc. cit): On the abactinal .system, on tlie contrary, while the ])lates of the genital 

 ring are well defined and seem to be distinctly separated from the coronal plates, \ et new interam- 

 bulacral plates are not added independently, as in the ambulacral system, and as in the interambulacral 

 system of otiier young Echinoids where the genital ring remains permaneutl> closed. The new inter- 



