REPORT ON THE ASTEROIDEA. 581 



Colour in alcohol, a bleached asby grey or white, with occasional darker tints sugges- 

 tive of a violet colour during life. 



Locality. — Station 150. Between Kerguelen and Heard Islands. February 2, 1874. 

 Lat. 52° 4' 0" S., long. 71° 22' 0" E. Depth 150 fathoms. Coarse gravel. Bottom 

 temperature 35° - 2 Fahr. ; surface temperature 37°'5 Fahr. 



Remarks. — This species is nearly allied to Asterias (Smilasterias) scalprifera, but is 

 distinguished by the smaller habit, by the more compactly papillose character of the 

 abactinal spinulation, and by the constant presence of only three spines in the oblique 

 combs on the infero-marginal plates, and only two spines in the armature of the adambu- 

 lacral plates, irrespective of the size of the example. I was at first inclined to think 

 that this form might perhaps be the young stage of Asterias (Smilasterias) scalprifera, 

 but the constancy of the characters above noted throughout the large series of examples 

 collected appear to me, after a careful study, to warrant the recognition of Asterias 

 [Smilasterias) triremis as a distinct species. 



D. Asterias ophidion group : Subgenus Hydrasterias, nov. 



14. Asterias (Hydrasterias) ophidion, n. sp. (PI. XCIX. figs. 3 and 4; PI. CIII. figs. 

 3 and 4). 



Rays six. E = 51 mm.; r=7 mm. R>7r. Breadth of a ray at the base, 6'5 

 mm. ; greatest breadth a little beyond the base, 7'5 mm. ; breadth about midway between 

 the base and the extremity, 5 mm. 



Rays elongate, narrow, cylindrical, slightly inflated near the base, tapering gradually 

 to the extremity, which is pointed and attenuate. Disk small, not higher than the base of 

 the rays. Interbrachial arcs acutely angular, the rays appearing to be crushed together at 

 the base. 



The abactinal skeleton is composed of very narrow plates, which form a delicate wide- 

 meshed network. The meshes are large, more or less quadrate in general form, and their 

 major diameter is transverse in relation to the direction of the ray. A thin, band-like 

 median radial line of plates may be indistinctly traced. The abactinal plates bear at wide 

 intervals apart, short, isolated, delicate, tapering, skin-covered, microscopic spinelets. 

 The spinelets upon the disk are much more robust than those on the ra) r s and more 

 closely placed. On the membrane which covers the meshes are borne numerous, but 

 widely spaced, isolated, uniform, forcipiform pedicellarise, the whole giving a wide-spaced 

 granular appearance to the surface when viewed with the naked eye. Papula? appear to 

 be very few in number, small and difficult to distinguish, and probably not more than 

 one is present in a mesh. 



The armature of the adambulacral plates consists of two short, comparatively robust, 

 skin-covered spinelets on each plate, forming a transverse pair, very close together and 



