REPORT ON THE ASTEROIDEA. 467 



two or three should be counted as belonging to the adambulacral plates. The question 

 can only be decided by dissection and preparation, a step which would entail greater 

 mutilation than I consider desirable in the case of a unique specimen. The plate upon 

 which the outer spinelets are borne is slightly curved upward to the margin. 



The mouth-plates are prominent, with an elevated angular keel along their line of 

 juncture, terminating aborally in a rounded but prominent peak. The adoral margin 

 projects into the actinostome, but its prominence is masked by the position of the three 

 mouth-spines proper which stand on each side. The innermost is the longest, and 

 situated close to the adoral peak ; the other two are smaller, the outer one being the 

 least. At the outer angle of the plate adjacent to the adambulacral plate are three small 

 spinelets placed in a semicircle, which should probably also be ranked as mouth-spines. A 

 single large secondary mouth-spine is placed on the surface of the plate immediately 

 behind the innermost of the marginal mouth-spines, and is both longer and stouter than 

 these. All the mouth-spines are enveloped in membranous sheaths, those of the two 

 inner mouth-spines and the secondary being thick and fleshy, the others more delicate and 

 with saccular prolongations. 



The madreporiform body is very large and irregularly suboval in outline, the margin 

 being festooned by prolongations, having the appearance of flowing out between the widely 

 spaced fascicules by which the plate is surrounded. The central portion is slightly 

 elevated, subconical rather than convex, and somew T hat undulating iu conformity with the 

 marginal projections. The surface is covered with numerous very fine striations, w r hich 

 radiate from the centre. The major axis of the body measures 9 mm., and the minor 

 7*5 mm. Its position on the disk is somewhat nearer the centre than midway between 

 that point and the margin. 



A large aperture, 2 to 25 mm. in diameter, exists at a considerable distance from the 

 centre ; a muscular ring is traceable, and some caecum-like structures are slightly protruded. 

 This is probably the anal aperture, but its very excentric position is remarkable, being 

 nearly midway between the centre and the margin, and when the madreporite is placed 

 in the right anterior interradium, a line drawn through the centre of that plate, parallel 

 to the antero-posterior axis of the starfish, would bisect the orifice. 



No pedicellarias are present. 



The ambulacral furrows are very wide, and the tube-feet form by crowding four rows; each 

 tube-foot is furnished with a fleshy, button-like, terminal disk somewhat larger in diameter 

 than the adjacent portion of the tube, and the centre shows an invaginated depression. 



The actinostome is large, measuring about 13 '5 mm. in diameter, and the mouth-plates 

 could not be apposed. 



The actinal interradial areas are very limited, and any additional intermediate plates 

 that may be present beyond the representatives of those entering into the composition of 

 the ray are very few in number. 



