OR LTTTLE-KNOWy COMATULiE. 523 



the second aucl subsequent divisions, while all the axillarics are 

 syzygial or double joints. 



Miiller does not seem to have regarded the number of joints 

 in the successive ray-divisious as of specific value ; and he grouped 

 under the same specific name as that of the Linntean type some 

 C'omatulcc in the Bonn and Paris Museums, the latter from the 

 voyage of Peron and Lesucur. These have three joints in the 

 second and third ray-divisions as Avell as in the first ; and T have 

 accordingly removed them from the t3'pe of Actinometra multl- 

 radiata, and have described them under the name oiA. Feronii*. 



There is, however, a dry specimen from Peron's voyage in the 

 Paris Museum which does agree with the Linna?an t}^e ; and it 

 was referred to this by Miiller, along with a fine spirit-specimen 

 of A. Peronii from the same voyage, and two others brought by 

 Quoy and Graimard from the Moluccas. One of these last is 

 A. Peronii, and the other A. muUimdiata iu the restricted sense, 



Two individuals of this sjjecies were dredged by the ' Challen- 

 ger ' at Banda ; and I have thought it desirable, for the sake of 

 other workers, to redeseribe the type from them and from my 

 notes of Quoy and G-aimard's example just referred to. The 

 Linnsean specimen and that from Peron's voyage in the Paris 

 Museum arc dry and reduced to many fragments. For the pri- 

 vilege of examining them I am indebted to the kindness of Pro- 

 fessors Queunerstedt and Lundgren, and of Prof. E. Perricr. 



Actios" OMETEA multiradtata, Linn,, sp.f 

 Centrodorsal a tliick disk, sometimes almost columnar, with 

 the dorsal pole hollowed, and bearing a single or partially double 

 roAV of 20-30 moderately stout marginal cirri. They may have 

 30-40 joints, of which the fifth is usually longer than wide and 

 the next two or three the longest, least markedly so in the 

 older specimen. The next few joints shorten rather rapidly, and 

 commence to overlap on the dorsal side. This is most marked in 

 the following joints, which are nearly square and somewhat com- 

 pressed laterally. Small spines gradually appear near their distal 

 edges, and increase in distinctness up to the penultimate joint. 



First radials just visible, least so iu the larger specimen ; the 

 second relatively long, more or less hexagonal, and partly united 

 laterally. Axillaries pentagonal, about tAvice their length. The 

 rays and their subdivisions are well separated from one another. 



* • jS^otee IVom the Lcydeli Muscimi,' vol. iii. pp. 214-217! 



t Published by ))ei'missi())i nC ijic Lords Conimigsiouers of (he Treasury. 



