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THE KECENr CRINOIDS OF AUSTRALIA — CLARK. - CG7 



Professor Johannes Miiller next took up the comprehensive 

 study of the recent Crinoids, and in 1841 published an excellent 

 treatise on the genera and species of the Comatulids. In this 

 five new species are described which occur on the Australian 

 coasts, though, so far as known, none of the type specimens were 

 actually obtained there. The first of these species, Actinometra 

 imperialis, of unknown habitat, was made the type of a new 

 genus, Actinotnetra ; but later Miiller discovered that it was 

 identical with Lamarck's Gomatula solar-is, described twenty-five 

 years before. One of the four other species is also a synonym of 

 a form previously described by Lamarck, Alecto rosea being the 

 same as Gomatula brachiolata, and A. timorensis is identical with 

 the Alecto parvicirra described by Miiller in the same paper. 

 Alecto timorensis came from Timor, but the origin of the others 

 was unknown. 



On examining the literature, Miiller found two forms desig- 

 nated by the name multiradiata, supposed by their authors to be 

 referable to the Liunaean Asterias multiradiata. One was the 

 Gomatula multiradiata of Lamarck, briefly and inadequately 

 diagnosed in 1816, and the other the Gomattda multiradiata of 

 Goldfuss, well described and beautifully figured in 1832. Miiller 

 took the ground that the name must hold for the form which was 

 recognizable from the description, that described by Goldfuss, and 

 he redescribed one of Lamarck's original specimens under the 

 name of multifida, which name he intended as a .substitute for 

 multiradiata, Lamarck. The mxdtiradiata of Lamarck was a 

 composite species, composed of three elements now distributed in 

 two difi'erent genera ; but its exact interpretation is a matter of 

 very considerable importance, for it was made the type of the 

 genus Gomaster by L. Agassiz, in 1836. This action by Miiller 

 technically identifies the multiradiata of Lamarck, and gives us a 

 definite type, multifida, for the genus Gomaster. Although not 

 originally de.scribed from Australia, m,ultifida is an Australian 

 species. 



In 1843 Miiller described Alecto purpurea from a specimen 

 which was obtained by Preiss in Australia. This species has 

 been commonly considered identical with the Linn?ean Asterias 

 pectiiiata, but in reality it is perfectly distinct. The type is in 

 the Berlin Museum, and the authorities of that institution have 

 been so kind as to allow me to borrow it, M'hereby I have been 

 enabled to compare it side by .side with similar specimens in the 

 Australian Museum, and thus definitely to establish its identity 

 and individuality. 



On the 13th August, 1845, there appeared the following notice 

 in " L'Institut," p. 292: — 



" Une espece nonvelle d'Encrine vivante a etc dwcouverte par 

 le reverend C. Pleydell, a Newcastle, sur la riviere Hunter, 



