546 ENCOPE GRANDIS. 



stout thick edge, the immense size of the posterior interambulacral lunule. 

 with its thick raised edge, which occupies the greater part of the posterior 

 interambulacral space, and the broadly open shallow ambulacra! notches. 1 

 have not, in the specimens examined, found any of these notches showing a 

 tendency to close. The posterior cuts are the largest ; the anterior pair some- 

 what smaller; and the odd ambulacral cut is sometimes a mere indentation. 

 The apical system is large ; the genital openings distant. The posterior 

 ambulacral petals longest, arched outwardly, with a narrow interporiferous 

 space ; poriferous zones broad ; the median space in the anterior petals as 

 broad as the poriferous zones. The general outline is pentagonal ; posterior 

 vi\^ concave, or straighter than the other interambulacral sides. The apical 

 system is anterior; the vertex posterior, at the anterior extremity of the 

 interambulacral lunule. 



The furrows of the actinal side are remarkably deep, and commence to 

 branch a short distance from the mouth : they arc more diverging and less 

 arched than the furrows generally in Encope. The anus is situated at the 

 anterior extremity of the lunule. about one quarter the distance from the 

 mouth to the edge of the test. The median ambulacral spaces are quite 

 sunken on the lower side, forming a shallow, somewhat branching groove 

 from the marginal cuts towards the actinostome. The general coloration of 

 dried specimens is dark-greenish with a claret tinge ; on the lower surface 



the median ambulacral ami interambulacral spares are yellowish. The 

 spines of the two surfaces differ, as in all Encopidae ; they are short, of uni- 

 form size, clavate on the abactinal side, and larger, stouter, and more fluted 

 and cylindrical on the actinal side in proportion to the size of the actinal 

 tubercles. 



The jaws, as in the species of Encope in which the posterior lunule is 

 large, or the anus placed near the actinostome. are comparatively small ; 

 they are quite slender in this species, and much less powerful than in En- 

 copidae of the same size. 



Gulf of California. 



