REPORT ON THE ASTEROIDEA. oOl 



abactiual area are larger, and bear on the central part of the tabulum more numerous 

 granules, which are polygonal and truncate iustcad of semiglobular, closely crowded, and 

 usually form three or four Hues. This form is remarkable for very peculiar additions to 

 the pedicellarise on the plates adjacent to the adambulacral plates. These consist of two 

 laro-e prominent rounded granules, placed on one side of the entrenched pedicellarise 

 aud closely apposed together, themselves appearing like a thick massive subvalvate 

 pedicellaria. 



Locality. — Station 192. In the Banda Sea, between the Ki Islands and the Banda 

 Islands. September 26, 1874. Lat. 5° 49' 15" S., long. 132° 14' 15" E. Depth 140 

 fathoms. Blue mud. Surface temperature 82 o- Fahr. 



2. Nymphaster bipunctus, n. sp. (PI. LII. figs 3 and 4 ; PI. LIU. figs. 11 and 12). 



Bays five. B = 34 mm. ; r = 12 mm. B< 3 r. The minor radius is thus in the pro- 

 portion of about 35 per cent. 



Bays rather short in comparison with the other members of the genus, narrow, and 

 tapering slightly towards the extremity, which has the appearance of being rapidly pointed. 

 Width midway between the centre and the extremity, 575 mm. Interbrachial arcs 

 wide and flattened, which emphasises the pentagonal form of the disk. 



The marginal plates are massive and form a vertical lateral wall, the section of the ray 

 being rectangular in outline, with the angles slightly rounded. The supero-marginal 

 plates are fifteen in number from the median interradial line to the extremity. The inner- 

 most plates in the interbrachial arc have their height about equal to their length, whilst the 

 breadth as seen from above is slightly greater. As they proceed along the ray, the pro- 

 portion of the height diminishes and also that of the breadth, but to a less degree, the 

 length being the greatest dimension near the extremity. The surface of the plates is 

 covered with a small, uniform, semiglobular miliary granulation, fairly well spaced and 

 distributed without order on the plate, except at the lateral margins, where it forms a lineal 

 series and has a tendency to become slightly moi'e papilliform. The median surface of the 

 plates is slightly convex. One of the entrenched pedicellarise similar to those described 

 in Nymphaster symbolicus occurs on the abactiual area of nearly all the supero-marginal 

 plates, except at the extremity of the ray. The odd terminal plate is elongate and shield- 

 shaped, angular adorally, with its free extremity subcylindrical, slightly tapering and 

 obtusely truncate. The infero-marginal plates correspond to the superior series and are 

 covered with similar and uniform miliary granules. Not more than two or three of the 

 infero-marginal plates in each radial span are furnished with a pedicellaria. 



The armature of the adambulacral plates consists of a furrow series of eight very 

 delicate spinelets, except near the middle of the ray, where ten are often present, and at 

 the extremity where the number is less. The spinelets, which are very small, elongate, 



