SHALLOW-WATER STARFISHES ljl 



A good dry specimen taken at Departure Bay, British Columbia, 

 in 18 fathoms, gravel bottom, September, 1908 (C. H. Young), has 

 been sent to me by the Canadian Geological Survey. 



Radii, 28 mm. and 190 mm. ; ratio, about 1 : 7. The dorsal skeleton 

 is rather firm, though the plates are small, but the plates and cross- 

 bars are numerous, and papular areas are not very large. The 

 median row of spines is pretty close and regular, composed of a 

 single row of large and long, nearly cylindrical, partly tapered, blunt 

 spines, one to a plate. On each side there are two or three less 

 regular, rather distinct rows of widely spaced long spines, like those 

 of the median row, but not half so numerous. 



Below the middle of the side there is a more regular row of similar 

 but more numerous superomarginal spines, curving upward, proxi- 

 mally, to the upper margin of the interradial angles. These, like the 

 dorsal spines, have a close wreath of small minor pedicellariae, 

 usually near the tips, but at least beyond the middle. 



Separated from the upper marginal plates by a wide, naked, 

 papular lane, there is a regular double row of large spines, which 

 are the inferomarginals. These spines are shorter and rather 

 smaller than those above, with blunt, fluted tips. They stand 

 obliquely on the plates, the lower one more distal, and close to a 

 similar spine arising from each of a series of small, roundish, per- 

 actinal plates, so that the three rows of spines form a series of 

 obliquely transverse, short, close rows, only slightly separated from 

 the adambulacrals. Each peractinal plate corresponds to four or five 

 adambulacrals. 



The adambulacral spines are arranged regularly, two to a plate. 

 They are equal, slender, tapered, subacute, shorter and much smaller 

 than the adjacent ventral spines. Carried on the adambulacral spines 

 and within the borders of the grooves, are numerous rather large, 

 lanceolate, subacute major pedicellarige, many of them equal in 

 thickness to that of the spines, at mid-height, and from one-fourth 

 to one-third as long. On the sides and back of the rays there are 

 also many scattered major pedicellariae, mostly of still greater size. 

 Some of these are lanceolate, but most are thick, stout, ovate or 

 oblong-ovate, with the tips of the jaws blunt and strongly denticu- 

 late. 



The dried specimen has been stained by the preparator to a deep 

 red-brown color, probably imitating its color in life. 



The largest specimen that I have seen is about two feet in diameter, 

 as dried, it has the greater radii 340 mm.; lesser, 30 mm.; ratio, 



