126 GONIASTERl^E. 



This Cushion-star is one of the rarest and most beau- 

 tiful of our native Starfishes. It was first figured as British 

 by Mr. Sowerby in the British Miscellany, from a specimen 

 "found by James Brodie, Esq. in February 1806, on the 

 coast near Brodie House," in the north of Scotland. Pro- 

 fessor Jameson had recorded it in the Wernerian Me- 

 moirs, as having been found "by Mr. (now Dr.) Neill 

 near Newhaven in the Frith of Forth. 11 The figure I have 

 given was drawn by Mr. John Thornhill, from a specimen 

 obtained by a fisherman off Cullercoats, Northumberland, 

 now in the collection of Mr. Richard R. Wingate, the 

 celebrated animal preserver of Newcastle, through whose 

 kindness I am enabled to present the following original 

 description drawn up with the assistance of my distin- 

 guished friend, Mr. Alder. 



The diameter of the Newcastle specimen, the largest 

 British example with which I am acquainted, is nine 

 inches and three-fourths. The form is sub-pentangular. 

 The upper surface is covered with irregularly placed mam- 

 miform tubercular spines, varying from the one-eighth to 

 the one-thirty-second of an inch in diameter, and of about 

 the same height. These spines are smooth, and are placed 

 in the centres of nearly circular plates, each of which is 

 surrounded by a border of minute tubercles. The inter- 

 mediate spaces are granulated by similar tubercles, among 

 which are scattered furrowed forceps-like spinules, which 

 are long and equal in shape. The madreporiform tuber- 

 cle is sub-central and small. The margins of the upper 

 surface are bordered by two rows of plates, varying in 

 shape, but mostly oblong, with nearly semicircular ends, 

 their longest sides being in juxta-position. These plates 

 are smooth, raised in the centre, and bear from one to 

 three mammiform tubercular spines. A border of small 



