The Echinoderm Fauna of South Africa. 293 



considered it necessary to institute a new family for the reception 

 of the genus. The French expeditions took Cryaiter far to the 

 south of Tierra del Fuego, and the Shackleton expedition took it 

 near South Victorialand, even further south from Australia. The 

 occurrence of two specimens, which are certainly of the same family, 

 in the PIETER FAURE collection, from shallow water in Algoa Bay, 

 is thus of unusual interest. These individuals are obviously different 

 from the Antarctic species but there seems to be no reason why 

 they should not be placed in the same genus. 



CRYASTER BRACHYACTIS *, sp. nov. 

 Plate XL Figs. 1, 2. 



R = 40 mm.; r = 25 mm.; R = l-6r; br = 27 mm. Disk very 

 large, thick (v. d. = 18 mm.), dorsally flat, orally convex. Rays 5, 

 short, wide, thick and bluntly pointed. Abactinal surface covered 

 by a leathery body wall, a millimeter thick, in which are imbedded 

 innumerable minute plates, each of which carries one (seldom two, 

 very rarely more) sharp, rough spinelet, half a millimeter long; the 

 entire upper surface is thus quite uniformly, minutely prickly. 

 Papulae minute, very numerous, but not uniformly distributed. Seen 

 from the inner side the abactinal body wall has the appearance of 

 a decalcified wall in which there had been a well-developed reticu- 

 late skeleton, and the papulae are confined to the meshes of this 

 leathery reticulation. There is however no evidence whatever of 

 decalcification having occurred anywhere. Madreporite not conspicuous, 

 3 mm. across, situated about half way between the margin and center 

 of disk. 



Actinal intermediate areas large, without calcareous plates, spinules 

 or papulae ; the surface is somewhat wrinkled or folded in radial 

 series but very superficially. The boundary between the actinal and 

 abactinal surfaces is well-marked by a series of rather large plates 

 buried in the skin, most of which carry several small sharp spinelets 

 but some are armed with spines 1'5 mm. long and nearly -5 mm. 

 thick at base. Adambulacral plates numerous, short, wide and well 

 developed; each plate bears on the furrow margin a stout, sharp, 

 somewhat flattened spine, 1-2 mm. long; on a few plates here and 

 there, this spine has distal to it, a smaller and more slender spine ; 

 on the surface of each plate is a second spine, equal to or larger 

 than the first and very rarely a third spine, somewhat smaller, occurs 

 at the outer end of the plate; none of these adambulacral spines 



= short -f- amis = ray, in reference to the very short rays. 



