202 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



siderable variety of localities, led me to acquiesce in the conclusions of Pourtales and 

 Rathbun, which were also adopted by Ludwig 1 two years later. 



Remarks. — Antedon carinata is thus very extensively distributed in tropical and sub- 

 tropical seas. Originally described from Mauritius, it has since been found at Ceylon, the 

 Seychelles, Madagascar, Zanzibar, Muscat, Aden, and in the Red Sea, The British Museum 

 contains specimens from St. Helena ; it is common all along the South American coast 

 from Rio Janeiro to Pernambuco, reappears at Venezuela, and was dredged abundantly in 

 278 fathoms off St. Lucia. As yet it is only known from Chile on the Pacific coast of 

 America ; and this is further south than any locality on the Atlantic coast at which the 

 type has yet been obtained. I have a strong suspicion too that an individual from 

 Norfolk Island, which I saw at Vienna in 1880 with the museum name Antedon 

 marmorata, is very closely allied to, if not identical with, Antedon carinata; but I 

 should prefer to leave the point undecided for the present, until I can make a more 

 detailed examination of the Vienna specimen. In the same year I found some very 

 typical examples of Antedon carinata in the museum at Hamburg, which were labelled 

 as having been obtained at Java. This of course is only separated by a part of the 

 Indian Ocean from Mauritius and the Seychelles ; but if the locality of these four 

 specimens is rightly given, it is curious that no other examples of Antedon carinata from 

 the eastern shores of the Indian Ocean should have occurred in any one of the numerous 

 collections of Coniatuke which I have examined. Thus, for example, it is not represented 

 in Dr. Anderson's collection from the Mergui Archipelago. It has been recently obtained 

 at Ceylon, however, but Mr. G. C. Bourne was unable to find any Comatulae at all on 

 the Coral reefs of the Chagos Islands, which occupy an intermediate position between 

 Java and the Seychelles, although he was good enough to make a special search for 

 them on my behalf. Under these circumstances, therefore, I must confess to a certain 

 amount of doubt respecting the presence of Antedon carinata at Java, as the Hamburg- 

 label records, and can only wait with interest for further information on the subject. 



The characters of the centro-dorsal, arms, and lower pinnules distinguish Antedon 

 carinata very clearly from the other members of the M ilberti-growp. In fact, as hinted 

 above, it may become desirable at some future time to remove the type from this group 

 altogether. The lower pinnules are all of tolerably equal length, and only differ in the 

 proportions of their component joints. The stoutness of the joints increases up to the 

 third outer pinnule (on sixth brachial), and the next two or three pinnules are most 

 frequently almost equally stout, but in a few cases the size of the pinnule-joints decreases 

 from this point onwards. In full-grown individuals the width of the arm remains 

 uniform until the second syzygy (eighth brachial), after which the joints become more 

 triangular, and the width begins to decrease, while the median keel or crest becomes more 



1 Verzeiclmiss der von Prut'. Dr. Ed. van Beneden an der Kiiste von Brasilien gesammlten Ecbinodermen, Mem. 

 Acad. Sci. Bruxelles, 1882, t. xliv. p. 5. 



