ECIIINODEIIMATA. 
761 : 
spocimon lias tlio ventral porisoine proservod ; tlio mouth is contralj and tho 
anal tube occupies one of the interpalmar compartments; the tentacular 
grooves are similar to those of Alecto. As in P. asteria, the soft ventral mem- 
brane is covered with sm'all plates ; the arm-branches are round and smooth 
as in P. asteria. In one arm ninety joints were counted. The pinnules are 
short and flat, composed of from nine to twelve joints, the number of joints 
diminishing to one at the end of the arm. 
Tlie author does not insist with certainty, in his r6sume of their characters, 
upon the specific distinctness of P. asteria and P. mUlleri — which, however, 
he regards as highly probable. He points out that many of the characters, 
especially the number of stem-joints intervening between the cirrigerous 
joints, the mode of branching of the arms, and the number of arm-joints 
between the bifurcations, are liable to variation in different individuals of the 
same species. To certain characters, however, e. g. the form of joint between 
the second and third radials, he attaches a specific value, and suggests the im- 
portance of a reexamination of the specimens in the various European Mu- 
seums witli a view to ascertaining such point with certainty. 
Dr. Liitken enumerates the species of recent sea-lilies which have been 
noticed, or which are more or less perfectly Imowm. A third species of 
Pentacrinus, from the West Indies (P. decorus), is noticed by Prof. Wyville 
Thomson. In a short paper read before the German Nat. Ilist. Association 
in Carlsruhe in 1858, Prof. Max Schultze mentions three species, one of 
which he had procured from Amboyna. These species, however, were not 
distinguished. Prof. Owen briefly notices a small form dredged in 8 fath. 
in St. George’s Sound, West Australia. An attached stalkless form, IIolo- 
pm ravgii, has been described by D’Orbigny, Avho finally, in his imperfect 
work on Orinoids, refers some doubtful fragments of stems from a recent 
breccia in the West Indies to a recent species of Bourgiieticrinus. 
The author regards Alecto as the only recent Grinoid referable to the same 
family as- Pentacrinus. He does not regard the two forms, however, as by 
any means generically identical, and points out very marked distinctions 
between them. 
Dr. Liitken concludes his paper with an interesting outline of the relation 
of the leading fossil forms of the group. He notices the singular absence of 
the tentacular grooves and of a central oral aperture in most of the palaeo- 
zoic series, and discusses at length the probable function of the proboscis.” 
On this vexed question he arrives at no satisfactory conclusion, but appears 
rather upon the whole inclined to regard the proboscis as an anal tube. 
Ophiuridea and Asteroidea. 
Norman (/. c. p. 104) records the following as British: — (Asteroidea) 
Astropeetrn irregularis (Pen.), A. ncieidaris (Norman), Luidea savignii (And.), 
L. sarsii (1). & K.), Archaster pandii (D. & K.), Palmipcs (Pen.), 
Astcrina gibbosa (Pen.), Solaster papposus (Lin.), S. cndeca (Lin.), Porania 
pulvillus (0. F. Miill.), Goniaster plirygianus^ (Parelius), Cribrella sanguino^ 
lenta (0. F. Miill.), Stichaster roseus (0. F. Miill.), Asterias glacialis (Lin.), 
A. mulleri (Sars), A. rubens (Lin.), A. violacea (O. F. Miill.), A. hispida^ 
Pen. : (Ophiuroidea) Astrophyton linckii (M. & T.), Asteronyx lo 6.ni (M. 
& T.), Ophiothrix fragilis (O. F. Mx\[\.)jAmp)hiura Jiliformis (0. F. Miill.), A, 
c/inyV* (Forbes),. .4. brachiata (Mont.), A. elegans (Leach), A- W/n (Tliomp.), 
