292 Annals of the South African Museum. 



spinelet was broken off but as a rule the tubercles seem never to 

 have had a pointed tip. 



The specimen from Table Bay looks very different. It was ap- 

 parently not preserved until it had been dead for some time, so 

 that the spines and spinelets are seldom erect but are appressed 

 to the body wall ; as they are whitish while the skin is deep brown, 

 the coloration is quite different from that of the holotype. The 

 abactinal spinelets are fewer than in that specimen while the ad- 

 ambulacral spines are more numerous (often 4 on a plate) and more 

 slender. The double series of actinal spinelets just outside the ad- 

 ambulacrals is quite distinct. The reticulation of the skeleton is 

 not at all distinct except on the distal halves of the rays, abactinally. 



The specimen from off Cape Morgan is slightly smaller than the 

 others and much lighter coloured. It is uniformly light wood-brown, 

 the spines not much lighter and hence not in contrast. The reti- 

 culation is not so marked as in the type, partly because the skele- 

 tal plates are wider and the papular areas smaller, and partly 

 because the abactinal spinelets are fewer and are well-spaced. The 

 madreporite is very small and hard to find. Aetinally the specimen 

 is much like the holotype except that the spines are smaller and 

 more slender; many adambulacral plates have only two spines, in 

 addition to the furrow spine ; the oral plates on the contrary, may 

 have four marginal spines instead of three. 



On the whole, reticulatus is no more variable than some of the 

 other species of the genus and I think there is little doubt that 

 these three specimens are really a single species. It is evident that 

 if the genus Othilia is to be recognized because of the actinal papu- 

 lae, reticulatus is an Othilia. On the other hand, it is superficially 

 very near the Mediterranean sepositus, which is a typical Echinaster. 

 It differs from sepositus, not only in the matter of the papulae but 

 in the adambulacral armature. This latter feature also distinguishes 

 reticulatus from several other Echinaslers to which it is nearly allied. 



CRYASTERIDAE. 



This small family was instituted in 1906 by Koehler for some 

 remarkable starfishes taken by the first French Antarctic Expe- 

 dition. Additional specimens were secured by the second expedition 

 in 1908-09, one of which represented a second species. The genus 

 Cryaster is distinguished especially by the almost complete absence 

 of a skeleton ; only along the ambulacral furrows are connected 

 calcareous ossicles present. This character is so unusual that Koehler 



