1 28 GONIASTERIvE. 



pale orange colour. It is in fine preservation, although 

 it is now twelve years ago since it was taken. Mr. 

 Brodie's specimen was bright red above ; beneath, yel- 

 lowish with red margins. 



In the vignette on the preceding page, the two first figures 

 represent the tubercles and spinules of the surface and 

 border of the lower surface ; the third and fourth those of 

 the upper. 



In the Magazine of Natural History for March 1836, 

 Dr. Johnston describes and figures a Starfish from the coast 

 of Caithness, under the name of Asterias Jonstoni, which 

 I regard as a variety of this species. Dr. Johnston says, 

 " Mr. J. E. Gray, who has examined the specimen figured, 

 tells me that it is quite distinct from the true Asterias 

 equestris ; and he has in consequence assigned to it the 

 specific name which is here adopted. I am, nevertheless, 

 convinced the species is identical with the Asterias equestris 

 of British authors." The specimen is now in the British 

 Museum, and seems to be a four-angled form of this 

 Cushion-star. Such a variation of form is not uncommon 

 in the genus Goniaster. Dr. Johnston describes his animal 

 thus : " Body square ; sinuated between the angles, of 

 which two are somewhat more produced than the others, 

 flat, rough, with papillary warts and miliary granules, the 

 latter encircling the dilated smooth base of the obtuse 

 papillae ; these granules and warts cover the surface, but 

 in the centre of a ring of granules there are frequently small 

 apertures protected by a pair of roundish scales, which 

 open and shut at the will of the animal ; operculum lateral, 

 slightly convex, deeply grooved, the grooves branched ; 

 margin obtuse, thick, protected by a double series of large 

 square plates, studded with from two to four papillae, and 

 each of them surrounded with a series of granules ; the 



