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, — Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadel^fhia, 

 July 20, 1875. 



On the Classification and Synonymy of the Stellenda. 

 By M. E, Perriek. 



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

 la Collection des SteUerides du Museum d'Histoire NatureUe de 

 Paris," I request pennission 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 Goniasteridaj, Asterinidae, Pterasteridse, Astropectinidse, and 

 Brisingidse. As in the case of the first three families, the Asteriadse, 

 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 Goniasteridae corresponds to the 

 genera Astrogonium, Goniodiscus, Stellaster, Asteropsis, Oreaster, and 

 Culcita, as defined by M tiller 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 pediceUarias, 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. From an examination of Gray's types 

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

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

 citce, the latter young Antheaeoe. 



The genera composing my family Asterinidae are Patiria, Gray 

 (restricted), Nepanthia, Gray (pars), Asterina, Nardo, Palmipcs, 

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

 which is but little known, is a most curious intermediate type be- 

 tween the Asterinidae and the Astropectinidae. The Nepanthite have 

 been wrongly regarded as Chcetasteres. I have ascertained that 

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

 ■with Clicetaster in the family Astropectinidae, and another wliich, 

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

 This latter is our Nepanthia. 



The family Astropectinidae includes the genera Chcetaster, Luidia, 

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

 families contains only a single genus. 



Beyond these modifications introduced into the systematic arrange- 



