MisceUaneous. 2.'} I 



Houth and west of Irolnnd." At the close of this paper lie accepted 

 Agnssiz's reference of I'ourtnles's small specimens to C. hijstrir. 



The reason for rakiiit: up all this ancient history is tliat, in 1903, 

 Or, Mortensen (' Ingolf Echinoidea, p. 51) considered that the 

 species till then usually known as Asthenosoma hystrix belonf;:ed 

 to a different genus from Asthenosoma vnrinni, which is the genotype 

 of Asthenosoma ; '* accordingly," says he, " it must form a separate 

 genus keeping the name of Calveria, which was originally given to 

 it by AVyv. Thomson and wliich it has unjustly boon deprived of." 

 Dr. Mortcnsen further separated Asthenosoma fi-nestratiDu as the 

 genotype of yet another genus which he called Arcrosoma (op. cit. 

 p. 53). Professor A. Agassiz in 11)04 (on p. 84 of " Pauaraic Deep- 

 sea Echini," Mora. Mus. Harvard, xxxi.), while rejecting these 

 new genera of Mortensen's, drew attention to the prior use ot 

 Calveria h/stri.v for an Asteroid. In the same year Delage and 

 Herouard (' Traitc' do Zoologie concrete,' iii. p. 100) reinstated 

 Calveria, Carp., Jeffr., & Thorns., as a genus of their family 

 I'terasterinir. IJut, since the name had been " acccpte uni- 

 versellement pour un Oursin regulier reraarquable," they proposed 

 for the Asteroid the new name Calveriaster. 



One ought to assume that Professors Delage and Herouard have 

 examined the species on which they base Calveriaster, and that 

 they have satisfied themselves of its generic independence. None 

 the less, it appears that their action was long ago anticipated by 

 Wyville Thomson himself, and that he proposed for the starfish in 

 question the name Korethraster hispi'lus, which is placed by tho 

 two French authors in a different family. 



Korethraster hispidus was introduced on p, 120 of the ' Deptlis 

 of the Sea' in the following words: — " A curious little group of 

 cushion stars, hitherto supposed to be confined to high latitudes, 

 were represented by Pteraster militaris, M. & T., and P. ])uIviUiis, 

 Sars, and by two forms new to science, — one, Korethraster hispidus, 

 sp. n., with the whole of the upper surface covered with long free 

 paxilhe like sable brushes. Kange.s of delicate spatulate spines 

 border the arabulacral grooves. As in Pteraster, there is a double 

 row of conical water feet." In short, Thomson here described " a 

 very singular Asteroid allied to Pteraster, which is covered with 

 ft regular brush of long paxilUe," those words being, however, 

 the original description of Calveria hystrix. 



The type specimen of Korethraster hispidus, preserved in the 

 Uritish iluseum, where my colleague Prof. Jeftrey Bell has kindly 

 assisted mo to examine it, was obtained by the ' P()rcuj)iiie ' in 

 18G9, on the same cruise as that which produced tho Asteroid 

 Calveria hy.stri.r. .Vmong the Asteroids obtained in that year the 

 only other which could possibly be described as " a very singular 

 Asteroid allied to Pteraster " is now known as Ifymenaster pellucidus, 

 W}"v. Thomson ; but the paxillfc of this, as is well known, arc 

 short and support a membrane. The absence from tho bottle of 

 any MS. label bearing the name Calveria hystri.v was only to be 

 expected if the history hero suggested were correct. 



The identity of Korethraster hispidus and Calveria hystriv would 

 not be doubted if it could be shown that both were obtained at the 



