Ophiura. RADIATA. ASTERIADtE. 489 



32. O. Rosula. — Body, dorsally, spinous, with two large, 

 smooth scales at the base of each arm. 



St. scol., Rosula scol. Linck, p. 52, t, xxvi. No. 42. Borl. Corn. t. xxv. 

 £ 19-24. Ast. sphserulata, pentaphylla, varia, aculeata, hastata, fissa, 

 et nigra, Penn. Br. Zool. iv. p. 63. No. 63-69, t. xxxii. 63 — A. fra- 

 gilis, Midler, Zool. Dan. t. xcviii. f. 1-4. Radiated Star, Cordiner, 

 Ruins, No. 16. A. aculeata, Stewart's El. 1. p. 401, No. 9 — Common 

 on all parts of the coast. 

 The body between the arms is usually prominent, and covered with mi- 

 nute warts." The scales of the arms, dorsally, are imbricated, with a ridge in 

 the middle, and a slight projection on the distal ridge. Those placed orally 

 are similar to the scales of the preceding species. The spines have four or 

 five in the row, are longer than the diameter of the ray, minutely denticu- 

 lated, and above the base of each denticule on the spine, there is a pore, ac- 

 cording to Cordiner This species has been confounded with the preceding by 



Linnaeus, in the Syst. Nat. p. 1101, No. 12, under the title aculeata. Abild- 

 gaard, in the Zoologia Danica, by terming it fragilis, has increased the con- 

 fusion. M. Lamarck (An. sans Vert. 1 1. 544.) has still farther added to the dif- 

 ficulties by quoting Linck's figure of rosula, first as synonymous with the gra- 

 nulata, which, however, as usual, he alters and terms echinata ; then, as a species 

 something different from aculeata of Muller, of which he seems in doubt, yet 

 changes into squamata ; and, lastly, as a species which he had not seen, un- 

 der the title of rosularia ; while the fragilis of M idler ranks as a species dif- 

 ferent from them all ! Among the Echinodormata, indeed, this author is sin- 

 gularly bewildered. In such a state of confusion, I have preferred the specific 

 names of Linck. 



Gen. XI.— ASTROPHYTON— Dorsal disc exposed, cori- 

 aceous, and destitute of jointed filaments ; the five arms 

 dichotomously subdivided, with simple spines. At the 

 base of each side of the rays, on the oral disc, there is a 

 semilunar opening. Cordiner states, probably on good au- 

 thority, that the species adhere by the dorsal disc, and that it 

 is difficult to disengage them. The preference is here given 

 to the old term of Linck, instead of Eur'iale of Lamarck. 



33. A. scutatum. — Body with ten warty ridges. 



Linck, p. 65. tab. xxix. No. 48. and tab. xxx. No. 49. — Asterias caput- 



medusae, Linn. Syst. 1101, No. 16 Asterias arborescens, Penn. Brit. 



Zool. iv. 67- No. 73. Cordiner's Ruins, No. 19 — A. Caput-meduso?, 

 Turt. Brit. Faun. 149, No. 131. Stewart's El. i. p. 402 — Cornwall, Dr 



Borlase Orkney, Mr Low — Zetland, (where it is called Argus), Prof. 



Jameson. 

 The arms are rounded and warty dorsally, flat orally, with a single row on 

 each side of short pectinated spines, corresponding with the tentacula. Be- 

 tween each ray, on the oral disc of the body, there is a depressed coriaceous 

 space, and on each ray are two rows of tentacula. Mouth pentagonal, with a 

 knob opposite the space of each ray. We have not had an opportunity of ex- 

 amining a British example of this species ; but, upon comparing one from the 

 Pacific Ocean, with the figure and description which Cordiner has given of 

 one from Norway, no marked differences appear to exist. In another, how- 

 ever, brought from the coast of Greenland, and presented to me by that ao 



