RADIATA. ASTEMADJE 
COMATULA. 
490 
complished navigator Captain Scoresby, the dorsal disc and ra}^s were desti- 
tute of those numerous warts which characterize the A. scutatum. It belonged 
to the A. costosum. It therefore seems doubtful to which of these species the 
British examples should be referred. 
Gen. XII. COMATULA. — Dorsal disc clothed with calca- 
reous, jointed, incurved threads, ending in a claw ; arms 
subdivided, narrow, jointed, with tapering articulated pro- 
cesses on each side. These, in some species, have a mem- 
brane fimbriated at the edges, on the oral aspect. The oral 
disc is globose, surrounded by the base of the arms. 
34. C. rosacea. — Dorsal filaments exceeding thirty. ' 
LinJe., p. 55. tab. xxxvii. No. 66. — Asterias bifida, Penn. Brit. Zool. p. 65. 
No. 70 — C. fimbriata, Muller.^ Crin. p. 132. tab. i.— Pensance Luid, 
Millfbrd Haven, Mr Miller. 
The figures of Linck and Miller have a considerable resemblance, though 
the specimen from which the former has been taken, had been deprived of its 
dorsal filaments. 
35. C. harhata. — Dorsal filaments ten in number. 
Decanemos barbatus, Linck^ 55. t. xxxvii. f. 64. — Asterias decanemos, 
Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. 66. t. xxxiii. f. 71— A. pectinata, Adams^ Lin. 
Trans, v. 10. — West coast of Scotland, Pennant ; Wales, Adams. 
“ Both the pinnated and simple rays of this species are closely jointed 
throughout, and from these articulations arises its flexibility. The pinnae 
on the under side are furnished with hollow tubes, gradually decreasing in 
size as they approach the end ; from which proceed, at the wiU of the animal, 
small filiform transparent flexible bodies, which are probably the organs of 
feeling. On separating one of the pinnae from the main stem, the flesh was 
found to be composed entirely of small opaque globes (eggs ?). The filiform 
rays, or perhaps more properly the ra^cles, since by them the animal at- 
taches itself to any thing, are each terminated by an incurvated claw, resem- 
bling in figure, and evidently for the same purpose, as the claw of birds. The 
body is covered, on the upper side, by five unequal valves. It is remarkable 
of this species, that it is furnished with two apertures, one at the confluence 
of the valves, the other in the largest valve ; their position with respect to 
the centre is variable ; the last may readily escape observation, except when 
the animal chooses to elevate it above the plane of the valve. When fully 
expanded, the inside appears clothed with a fine membrane ; longitudinally 
folded, and revolute at its margin ; colour deep red.”— The second 
orifice here mentioned by Mr Adams is probably the vent (or oviduct), and 
seems to have been overlooked by subsequent observers. 
