384 CLARK : A NEW GENUS OF OPHIURANS 



which the leaves are lanceolate, acute at the apex, and rounded at 

 the base, very much as in R. incurva Moore. A photograph of a fruit- 

 bearing branch (No. 1571) was secured. The fruit, about 4.5 cm. in 

 diameter, is composed of comparatively few large, pointed carpels. 

 It is yellow when mature and edible, but rather insipid. As no flowers 

 were secured, it is not possible to place this plant in one of the groups 

 here proposed. 



ZOOLOGY. — Ophiomaria, a new genus of ophiurans from southern 

 South America and the adjacent portion of the Antarctic 

 continent. 1 Austin. H. Clark, National Museum. 



Two new species of ophiurans from the coast of Chile which 

 were dredged by the Albatross on her journey from the Atlantic 

 to the North Pacific represent a type which appears to be inter- 

 mediate between Ophioperla and such species of Ophiosteira 

 as 0. senoqui Koehler and 0. koehleri A. H. Clark, possessing the 

 general structure of the latter combined with the granular disk 

 covering of the former. Together with two other species, de- 

 scribed in 1901 by Professor Rene Koehler these forms appear to 

 represent a logical generic unit which may be known as 



Ophiomaria, gen. nov. 



Genotype. — Ophiomaria tenella, sp. nov. 



Diagnosis. — The disk is pentagonal or more or less stellate. The 

 dorsal surface is beset with fine granules which to a greater or lesser 

 degree conceal the plates. In the central portion of the inter brachial 

 spaces below there are usually numerous granules which surround, 

 or even entirely conceal, the plates. 



The arms are slender and evenly tapering, in length equal to about 

 four times the diameter of the disk, circular in section proximally, 

 becoming slightly flattened distally, rarely carinate. 



The arm comb is represented by a narrow band of irregular plates 

 or beadlike granules beyond the radial shields which recall the supple- 

 mentary arm plates in Ophiopholis. 



At the base of the arm the upper arm plates are usually very wide, 

 narrowly oblong; they rapidly become narrowly fan-shaped, and in 

 the distal half of the arm very small and widely separated from each 

 other. 



There are from three to five minute spaced arm spines. 



1 Published with the permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



