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Show 1881.] PROF. F. J. BELL ON THE GENUS ASTERIAS. 493 A synonymic Catalogue of the Asterida being, then, a desideratum for which we must still wait, I have here endeavoured to aid the author of that future catalogue by au attempt to adopt a method by which it will, as I hope, be easier than heretofore to recognize rapidly the characters of species already described, and to see what has been already more or less definitely effected in the determination of the synonymy. The arrangement of the species either by natural characters, or by special points arbitrarily selected on account of their real or apparent convenience, has necessitated the careful examination of the characters of the species already represented by specimens in the British Museum, and the close study of the descriptions of the unrepresented species. When these descriptions are examined with a view to obtain from them information as to certain characters, we are soon struck by the variation in the modes of description, by which this group has suffered so much. In directing attention, therefore, to the points by which, as I imagine, we can most satisfactorily and conveniently group the numerous species of this genus, I would take the opportunity of urging on those naturalists in whose care rare species may be, or to whom new species may come, to give us definite and exact information on these points, without, however, any prejudice to other structural characters which, seemingly useless at present, may to more sagacious naturalists prove to be of the highest systematic value. There are some species described by Dr. Gray which it will, I believe, never be possible to recognize; no specimens in the Museum bear the labels of the names A. echinata, A. aster, A. wilkinsonii, and A. multiradiata (Heliaster) ; and the descriptions that are given are certainly no aid at all to their identification. I propose to omit these names altogether from all the succeeding lists l. Of these lists, the first gives a catalogue of the names which have been applied to forms which are at present supposed to be specifically distinct from one another ; to all these names there is added a reference to a work in which the species has been more or less completely described. In the case of nearly all descriptions made previously to the year 1840, reference is made to the account given by Muller and Troschel in their ' System der Asteriden • ' in the case of Brandt reference is made, unless otherwise noted, to the ' Prodromus descriptions Animalium ab H. Mertensio . . . observatorum,' published at St. Petersburg in 1835 l. The papers of Dr. Stimpson are 1 The following quotations from a letter in. which Prof. Perrier was kind enough to answer some questions which I addressed to him will show how far we are in accord on this point:-" II m'a <§te impossible de retrouver au Museum VAsterias bootes de Muller et Troschel, et je n'ai conserve le n o m dans mes listes qua cause de l'autorite de ces auteurs. " Je vous en dirai autant des Asterias aster et A. wilkinsonii que je n'ai pu retrouver n au British Museum ni ailleurs, et qui ne sont pas reconnaissables d'apres les descriptions de Gray." |