ths Morphology of the Echinoderms. 105 



Prof. Perrier's standard for other reports, should have been 

 worked out in full detail. 



His own report commences with a section upon the primary- 

 divisions of the class of Stellerids, the keynote of which is 

 struck in the following sentence * : — " On pent dire d'une 

 mani^re generale que toutes les Etoiles de mer a tubes amhula- 

 craires biseries, ont une houche amhulacraire, et que toutes les 

 Etoiles de mer a tubes ambulacr aires quadrisSriSs, au mains a 

 la base des bras, ont une bouche ambulacr air e!'^ 



The unfortunate zoologist who is not a Starfish specialist, 

 but merely wishes to learn the general systematic results 

 which have been arrived at by the most eminent living writer 

 on the group, Avill rise from the perusal of this sentence witli 

 an even more confused notion of the classification of the 

 Asterids than he had before. For, according to Viguier f, 

 the biserial ambulacra are usually, but not always, correlated 

 with an adambulacral mouth, and not with an ambulacral one 

 as Professor Perrier tells us. 



Two pages further on he commences another section which 

 is devoted to the morphological signification of the pedi- 

 cellarise in Asterids and Urchins and to their physiological 

 rdle. But no reference whatever is made to the elaborate 

 observations of Romanes and Ewart \ upon the functions of 

 the pedicellarige ; and the discovery of glands upon the gem- 

 miform pedicellariae of Echini is attributed to Geddes and 

 Beddard, although these authors themselves admit § that their 

 " account of the structure of these pedicellarias substantially 

 bears out what has been said " by Sladen ||. But although 

 Mr. Sladen's paper was published in 1880 it is completely 

 ignored by Prof. Perrier four years later ; and Foettinger's 

 memoir 1^ on the same subject is also left entirely without 

 notice. The same neglect of the writings of the English 

 naturalist who is engaged in working out the ' Challenger ' 



* Op. cit p. 138. 



t " Anatomie compar^e du squelette des Stellerides," Arch, de Zool. 

 exper. et gen. t. vii. Annee 1878, p, 82. 



X " Observations on the Locomotor System of Echinodermata," Phil 

 Trans. 1881, pp. 840-852. 



§ "On the Histology of the Pedicellariae, and the Muscles of Echinus 

 sph<Bra," Trans. Roy. Soc. Ed. vol. xx. 1881, p. 392. 



II " On a remarkable Form of Pedicellaria and the Functions performed 

 thereby ; together vfith General Observations on the Allied Forms of this 

 Organ in the Echinidse," Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. vi. Aug. 1880, 

 pp. 101-114, pis. xii., xiii. 



^ "■ Sur la Structure desPedicellaires gemmiformes de Sphcerechimis 

 granulans et d'autres fichinides," Arch, de Biol. vol. ii. pp. 455-496, 

 pis. xxvi.-xxviii. 



