Note 45 — Chapter V · REGENERATION AND LIABILITY TO INJURY

The Sarasins have described several cases in Linckia multiformis in which an old arm has one or more new arms arising from it. In one case (copied in our Fig. 38, G), four rays arise from the end of one arm, producing the appearance of a new starfish. In fact the Sarasins interpret the result in this way, although they state that there is no madreporite on the upper surface, and they did not determine whether a mouth is formed at the convergence of the rays, because they did not wish to destroy so unique a specimen—even to find out the meaning of it. There seems to me little probability that the new structure is a starfish, but the old arm has been so injured that it has produced a number of new arms.