24 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



pedicellarise form large circumspinal wreaths, borne on contrac- 

 tile sheaths. Tube-feet are relatively large, in two rows., not 

 crowded. A pair of large peroral spines on the margins of the 

 oblong jaws, with groups of oral marginal pedicellarise." 



I have examined a specimen of Coronaster briareus from 90 

 fathoms, Gulf Stream, south of Key West. In this specimen 

 R equals 81 mm., or slightly more than in the largest example 

 listed by Professor Verrill (1915, p. 31). In this specimen the 

 tube-feet are crowded and quadriserial, or arranged in what one 

 might prefer to call two crowded zig-zag series, inasmuch as the 

 pores remain biserial. On the outer two-fifths of one ray the 

 pedicels are biserial, while on the other four, the quadriserial 

 arrangement extends to the tip. Perrier* mentions that in C. 

 antonii the tube-feet are quadriserial on part of the ray, although 

 the specimen is very small. 



I have compared this specimen of 0. briareus side by side 

 with large and medium-sized examples of Heterasterias volsellata 

 (Sladen) from the Philippine Islands, which has similarly 

 arranged quadriserial tube-feet, with biserial pores, only slightly 

 zig-zag in very large specimens. Furthermore the highly char- 

 acteristic skeleton of volsellata is nearly exactly duplicated, with 

 minor specific differences, by that of briareus. This skeleton, 

 which holds good also for C. parfaiti and C. antonii as figured 

 by Perrier,* consists of slender, lobed plates, joined by more or 

 less elongate connecting ossicles in such a way as to form a 

 median radial, and two marginal, regular longitudinal series, 

 joined together at the intervals of the primary plates by trans- 

 verse ossicles, leaving four series of large, rectangular papular 

 areas. At each node of this skeletal mesh is a sharp spine with 

 a retractile wreath of abundant pedicellarise. The inferomar- 

 ginal plates abut tightly against the adambulacrals. Further- 

 more, both species have the curious hand-shaped, unguiculate 

 major pedicellarise of conspicuous size, figured by Professor 

 Verrill. t 



Perrier + has given carefully drawn figures of C. parfaiti and 

 C. antonii. As already noted the skeleton is essentially the 



• Exped. scientif. du Travailleur et du Talisman, Echinodermes, 1891, p. 96, pi. 8. 

 + Verrill, 1915, op. cit., pi. 9, fig. 4c. 

 t Perrier, 1894, op. cit., pi. 8. 



