42 
ticuliére au C(yphosoma) radiatum (type of the genus Gauthieria ) 
et å quelques Acrosalénies est bien différente de la plaque unique 
pentagonale, dite suranale, des Peltastes, des Salénies et des 
Acrosalénies typiques. La plaque pentagonale de ceux-ci semble, 
chez un Échinide, une forme primitive, tandis que l’hexagone cen¬ 
tral du C. radiatum est probablement une forme dérivée, dont la 
morphologie n’apparait pas clairement». — It seems to me that 
there is no reason to regard this hexagonal plate in the middle of 
the apical system of Gauthieria as having a special morphological 
value. As Lambert himself has pointed out (Op. cit. p. 6) a 
similar plate occurs in some species of Acrosalenia , more or less 
distinctly developed. But the aspect of only a single specimen like 
tliat represented in fig. 4 seems to me to leave no doubt that 
this middle plate is simply one of the anal plates, of the same 
morphological value as the other anal plates, larger or smaller 1 ). 
The systematical position of the genus Gauthieria is not 
without importance as regards the remarkable development of its 
anal system. In the paper quoted Lambert is inclined to regard 
it as nearest to Acrosalenia , representing „un type a part qui 
relie les Salénies et les Peltastes aux Cyphosomes“. Later on, in 
the „Note sur quelques Échinides Éocénes de l’Aude u (Buli. Soc. 
Géol. de France. 3 Sér. XXV. 1897, p. 498) it is referred to 
the Cyphosominæ. — I do not venture to express a persoual 
opinion of which is its true systematic position; I would only 
point out that, in case it has nothing to do with the Salenids, 
this means that the special character of its anal plates has been 
reached along its own line of development, which faet, combined 
9 A. Ag assi z (Panamic Deep Sea Echini, p. 40) remarks that „the 
only thing Avliich at all suggests such a structure in recent Echini 
is the anal system of Aspidodiadema and Dermatodiadema“. I cannot 
see any similarity in the structure of the anal system of Gauthieria 
and of the two genera named. In the latter the anal opening is central, 
the large, disconnected anal plates lying concentric round it, while 
in Gauthieria the anal opening is excentric, the large plates lying 
at one side of it. 
