1881.] PROF. F. J. BELL ON THE GENUS ASTERIAS. 493 



A synonymic Catalogue of the Asterida being, then, a desideratum 

 for which we must still wait, I have here endeavoured to aid the 

 author of that future catalogue by an attempt to adopt a method by 

 which it will, as I hope, be easier than heretofore to recognize 

 rapidly the characters of species already described, and to see what 

 has been ah-eady more or less definitely effected in the determination 

 of the synonymy. 



The arrangement of the species either by natural characters, or by 

 special points arbitrarily selected on account of their real or apparent 

 convenience, has necessitated the careful examination of the cha- 

 racters of the species already represented by specimens in the 

 British Museum, and the close study of the descriptions of the 

 unrepresented species. When these descriptions are examined with 

 a view to obtain from them information as to certain characters, we 

 are soon struck by the variation in the modes of description, by 

 which this group has suffered so much. 



In directing attention, therefore, to the points by which, as I 

 imagine, we can most satisfactorily and conveniently group the 

 numerous species of this genus, I would take the opportunity of 

 urging on those naturalists in whose care rare species may be, or to 

 whom new species may come, to give us definite and exact infor- 

 mation on these points, without, however, any prejudice to other 

 structural characters which, seemingly useless at present, may to 

 more sagacious naturalists prove to be of the highest systematic 

 value. 



There are some species described by Dr. Gray which it will, I 

 believe, never be possible to recognize ; no specimens in the Museum 

 bear the labels of the names A. eckinata, A. aster, A. wilkinsonii, 

 and A. muUiradiata (Heliaster) ; and the descriptions that are given 

 are certainly no aid at all to their identification. I propose to omit 

 these names altogether from all the succeeding lists ^ 



Of these lists, the first gives a catalogue of the names which have 

 been a|)plied to forms which are at present supposed to be specifically 

 distinct from one another ; to all these names there is added a 

 reference to a work in which the species has been more or less com- 

 pletely described. In the case of nearly all descriptions made previously 

 to the year 1840, reference is made to the account given by Midler 

 and Troschel in their * System der Asteriden ; ' in the case of 

 Brandt reference is made, unless otherwise noted, to the ' Prodromus 

 descriptionis Animalium ah H. Mertensio . . . observatorum,' pub- 

 lished at St. Petersburg in 1835 '. The papers of Dr. Stimpson are 



^ The following quotations from a letter in which Prof. Perrier was kind 

 enough to answer some questioua which I addressed to him will show how far 

 we are in accord on this point : — "II m'a ete impossible de retrouver au 

 Museum VAstcrias bootes de Miiller et Troschel, et je n'ai conserve le nom dana 

 mes listes qii'a cause de I'autorite de ces auteurs. 



" Je vous en dirai autant des Asterias aster et A. wilMnsonii que je n'ai pu re- 

 trouver n au British Museum ni ailleurs, et qui ne sont pas reconnaissables 

 d'apres lea descriptions de Gray." 



