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GENUS. COMATULA. 



An unattached animal, having a depressed orbicular body, formed of cal- 

 careous plates enclosing the viscera. The mouth in the centre (capable of 

 being elongated into a proboscis) surrounded by tentaculated arms or fingers 

 composed of numerous joints ; near the base of the body, below the fingers 

 or arms, many jointed auxiliary side arms terminating in a hooked point. 



Observation. 



M. LAMARCK applies the name Comatula (derived from coma, a lock of hair, 

 in allusion to the resemblance the cluster of auxiliary side arms bear to it) as a 

 generic name, to a series of animals once incorporated in the Lin. Gen. Asteria. 

 Dr. LEACH applies the name Alecto to the same series of animals, describing 

 three species in his Zoological Miscellanies. Yet as his character is inferior in 

 precision to that of LAMARCK, as the name Alecto is, in its application by 

 Dr. LEACH, simply equivalent to that of Comatula, as his generic character 

 does not exhibit any new division of the genus Comatula, and as it seems 

 desirable to avoid the unnecessary multiplication of scientific nomenclature, I 

 have retained the latter. But as the characters given both by Dr. LEACH and 

 LAMARCK were drawn up from a comparison with the family Stelleridse, and do 

 not allude to those parts of its organization which mark the link between- it, 

 and the Crinoidea, I considered it necessary to furnish the above new generic 

 character. 



The Comatulae are not very numerous, but considerably distributed through 

 the various seas on our globe. 



At first sight the observer acquainted with the formation of Pentacrinus 

 Caput Medusae, will be struck with the resemblance the Comatulae bear to 

 the superior portion of that animal. The tentaculated fingers and auxiliary 

 side arms bear so striking a resemblance, that we are at first led to suspect that 



