EEPOET ON THE ASTEROIDEA. 043 



possessed by only two other form?, Freyella tuberculata and Freyella sexradiata. It 

 may be distinguished from both of these by the spiuulation of the abactinal plates, each 

 plate bearing two or three small spiuelets covered with simple membrane devoid of peel i- 

 cellarise. The general proportions are also different. 



10. Freyella heroina, n. sp. (PI. CXIV. figs. 5-8). 



Eays nine. R = 320 mm. ; r= 10 mm. R = 32 /•. Breadth of a ray at the base, 5 "5 

 mm. ; at the widest part of the ovarial inflation, 8 "5 mm. ; and at 40 mm. beyond the disk, 

 4 - 5 mm. 



Eays delicate and of remarkable length, cylindrical and narrow at the base, but almost 

 immediately swelling rather abruptly into a short ovoid ovarial inflation of moderate 

 tumidity, which hardly extends beyond 15 mm. from the base of the proximal twenty- 

 first part of the ray. From thence the ray is subtriangular and tapers continuously to the 

 extremity. The rays are distinctly spaced at the base, the interbrachial arcs being 

 sharply rounded. 



The disk is small, with the abactinal surface, which is subplane and capable of slight 

 inflation, very little higher than the base of the rays. The membrane covering the 

 disk and the basal portion of the rays, to the limit of the ovarial region, is underlaid by a 

 pavement of calcareous plates of subhexagonal form, which appear rather widely spaced. 

 The plating of the disk is invisible superficially, but that of the ovarial region may be 

 clearly traced with a hand-magnifier. On the disk the plates bear only very small spinelets, 

 about a millimetre in length or rather less, which taper slightly and are covered with simple 

 membrane, and they are sufficiently numerous to give a fairly hirsute appearance to the 

 disk. On the ovarial regions the spinelets are smaller and are congregated in little groups 

 of three to five on the centre of each plate, and the groups have consequently a distinct 

 and isolated appearance when seen with a low power. No pedicellarise occur normally 

 among the spinelets on the disk and ovarial regions, but here and there a small sporadic 

 one may be found. On the outer (distal) portion of the ovarial swelling, however, the 

 spinelets diminish in number, and their place is taken by small crowded pedicellariaa, which 

 speedily fall into crowded transverse bands, the spinelets disappearing altogether. These 

 pedicel larise are very small and measure from 0"12 to - 15 mm. in length. Beyond the 

 ovarial inflation the abactinal surface of the ray is covered with the usual delicate trans- 

 parent membrane, bearing saddle-like sacccular bands crowded with minute pedicellaria?, 

 the corresponding bands on the two sides of the ray being united across the median keel. 



The ambulacral furrow occupies nearly the whole of the actinal surface of the ray, 

 measuring about 2 mm. in width at a part where the whole ray is 4 mm. The adani- 

 bulacral plates are elongate, nearly 2 mm. in length, and form a narrow rounded margin 

 to the furrow ; their form is strikingly suggestive of a caudal vertebra ; the adoral end of 



