Coraaster and Comatulida3. 181 



dingnosis given by Agai5.siz was worthless ; wlille (3) Canon 

 Norman has not told us what we arc to understand by 

 Comntuki muhirndiataj 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 Actinoinetra. 



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

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

 requirements. 



(8) There was no call for me to do so. CarjDenter has 

 taken great pains in the matter, and after examination of 

 types considers that Lamarck included two species under 

 Comatula mnJtiradiata ; both of these he places in Actiiio- 

 metrcty and makes the earlier-described Comaster, Agassiz (of 

 which this same Comatula 7nultiradi'ata wa.s 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 Comatulidae, the name 

 AntedonidaB sliould certainly be applied to that family in 

 which Antedon is placed. But while such different forms as 

 ThaumatocrinuSj AteJecrinus, and Promacliocrinus swell the 

 motley crowd, the name Comatulid^ 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. Comatulidai, I had supposed, meant 

 Comatulida?, and was = Comatulid£e, i. e. the genus Comatula 

 and its allies; and as Comatula '\s, a synonym of Antedon^ 

 therefore Comatulida3=Antedonid£e = ^«^ec?6»rt 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 ' Report) gives and fully describes 

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

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

 Comatulidje, d'Orbigny, 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 Comatuke, 

 viz. Atelecrinus, Promacliocrinus, and Thaumatocrinus ', and 

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

 Comatulidae until quite recently." 



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

 I see I have made an error: — For " Group 3. typica " read "Gruu^ 7. 

 Fimbriata." 



t The italics are mine. 



