682 DR. W. B. CAKPENTEE ON THE STRUCTTJEE, PHYSIOLOGY, AND 



illustration in the fact tliat Lamarck, in the first edition of his ' Systcme des Aniraanx 

 sans Vcrtobres ' (1801), ranged them, as Linn^us had done, among his "Polypes il 

 rayons coralUgenes," by the side of Gonjonia, Umhellularia, and Fennatula ; apparently 

 under the influence of the original suggestion of Ellis, and of the eiToneous surmise of 

 GuETTAKD, who, however, nowhere goes so far as to affirm that the branching arms of 

 his " Palmier marin " actually bear Polypes. It is not a little surprising that, with the 

 very specimen of the recent Pentacrinus Caput-Medusce described by Guettard under 

 his eyes in the Museum at the Jardin des Plantes, Lamarck should have failed to recog- 

 nize its close relationship to Antedon, a type which, as we shall presently see, specially 

 attracted his attention. 



The first among post-Linnean zoologists who recognized the claim of this form of 

 Sea-star to a distinct generic rank, on account of that difference from all others in its 

 plan of structure which had been recognized by Lliiuyd and Linck, seems to have been 

 M. Fremixville', who in 1811 thus clearly defined the genus, to which he gave the 

 designation Antedon : — " Animal libre, a corps discoide, calcaire en dessus, gelatineux 

 en dessous, environne de deux rangees de rayons articules, pierreux, perces dans leur 

 largeur d'un trou central; ceux du rang superieur plus courts, simples, et d'egale 

 grosseur dans toute leur longueur ; ceux du rang inferieur plus longs, allant en dimi- 

 nuant de la base a la pointe, et garnis dans toute leur longueur d'appendices altemes 

 egalement articules ; bouche inferieure et centrale ; " — referring for his illustration to 

 the figure in the ' Encyclopedic Methodique ' (pi. cxxiv. fig. 6), which obviously repre- 

 sents the Stella decacnemos rosacea of Linck. Shortly afterwards (1814), and apparently 

 in ignorance of Freminville's definition, Dr. Leach characterized this type under the 

 generic name Alecto^. Both these designations, therefore, have a preferential claim to 

 that of Coinatula, which was not applied to the genus by Lamarck imtil the publication 

 of the second edition of his ' Animaux sans Vertebres ' in 1816. This claim was recog- 

 nized in regard to yilecto by Cuvier, who gave this name the preference to Comatula ; 

 and also at one time by Professor Jon. MIjller, who substituted Alecto for Comatula in 

 many of his communications to the Berlin Academy ; though he afterwards abandoned 

 it in favour of Comatula (in ignorance, as it would seem, of the characterization of the 

 genus by Fr^minville), the name Alecto having been in the mean time assigned to a 

 genus of PoLYZOA established by Lamouroux, and having come to be generally received 

 as its designation. Professor Muller's adoption of the name Alecto seems to have led 

 to its employment by Scandinavian Naturalists, who have continued to use it, notwith- 

 standing its abandonment by Professor Joh. Muller. It is clear, however, that if we 

 are to put aside Lamarck's name on the ground of priority, we must go back, not to 

 Alecto, but to Antedon ; and as Fremixville's definition of the genus is at least as correct 

 as that of Lamarck, it would be contrary to the rules of Zoological Xomenclature, as 

 now understood and acted on, to pass it by. Notwithstanding the appropriateness of 



' Nouveau Bulletin des Scionees, Societe Philomathique, torn. ii. p. 349. 

 ' Zoological Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 62. 



I 



