322 Mil. p. H. CAEPENTER ON jSTEAV 



1843. Comatula (Alecto) multiradiata^ Miiller (pars'), Wiegmann's 

 Archiv, 1843, i. p. 133. 



1849, Comatula (Alecto) multiradiata, Muller (pars), Abhandl. d, 

 Berlin. Akad. 1849, p. 261. 



1862. Actinometra multiradiata, Dujardin (pars), Hist. Nat. des Zoo- 

 phytes, Echinodermes, p. 210. 



1879. Actinometra multiradiata^ P. H. Carpenter, Trans. Linn, Soc. 

 Zool. 2nd ser. vol. ii. p. 2/. 



The museum contains some fragments of a dried example of 

 this species from Sumatra ; but they are too imperfect to serve 

 as a basis for a redescription of the type. 



So far as I can make out, Liuna^us's original description * of 

 Asterias multiradiata was based upon a specimen from the Indian 

 seas which is now in tlie Eetziau collection of the University 

 Museum at Lund. It was as follows : — ^^ Asterias omcliata radiis 

 palmato multiplieatis pinnatis : iuferioribus filiformibus." To 

 this type Linnseus referred the Caput Medusce cinereum and C. 

 brunnum of Linckf. E-etzius, twenty-five years later, gave a 

 somewhat longer description $ of the species, to which, like 

 Linnaeus, he referred the two specimens figured by Linck. Bru- 

 zelius, in the dissertation § which has been lately attributed to 

 his pen by Prof F. J. Bell, repeated the descriptions of Linnaeus 

 and Eetzius, the latter with slight modifications ; but he expressed 

 a doubt as to whether Linck's C. hrumium belonged to this type. 

 This doubt seems to me fully justified ; for, so far as I can judge 

 from Linck's figures, C. hrunnnm is an Antedon, while C. cine- 

 renin is an Actinometra, though not identical with the type 

 B'pecixnen of Asterias onultiradiata, Lamarck || merely repeated 

 the Liuna^an name and reference to Linck, with the remark that 

 the species might have fifty or sixty arms : but he did not refer 

 any of the specimens collected during Peron's voyage to this type. 

 This, however, was svibsequently done by Miiller^, who had per- 

 sonally examined the Eetzian specimen at Lund. It belongs to 

 a rather small section of the genus (Actinometra) in which there 

 are three joints in the first division of the rays, but only two in 



* ' Systema Naturje,' ed. 10, torn. ii. p. 6(i3. 



t ' De Stellis Marinis liber singularis ' (Lipsise, 1783), p. 55, tab. sxi. n. 33, 

 tab. xxii. n. 34. 



t'Kongl. Yetenstaps Academiens Nja Handlingar' (Stockholm, 1783) 

 tom. iii. p. 241. 



§ ' Dissertatio sistens species cognitas Asteriarum/ Lundfe, 1805. 



II ' Syst. d'Anim. sans Vert.' ii. p. 534. 



% ' Abhandl. d. Eerlin. Akad.' 1849, p. 261. 



