158 r.ULLETIN OF THE 



ness between two calices from this locality than between one of them 

 and a calyx from Zanzibar. Ant. carinata is described by Rathbun as 

 probably ranging along the Brazilian coast from Rio Janeiro to Per- 

 nambuco. It was not obtained by the " Blake " at all ; but it was found 

 in abundance by Captain Cole, of the " Investigator," in 278 fathoms, 

 off St. Lucia, so that it may fairly be considered as belonging to the 

 Caribbean fauna. 



The two Comahdce which appear from their abundance to be espe- 

 cially characteristic of the neighborhood of the Caril)bean Islands, ran- 

 ging from Santa Cruz to Grenada, are an Antedon and an Actinoinetra, 

 both of which had been obtained previously to the " Blake " Expedition of 

 1878-79. In the year 1870, M. Duchassaing brought from Guadeloupe 

 to the Paris Museum a fine specimen of Antedon, with thirty very spiny 

 arms. Prof Perrier having kindly permitted me to examine this type 

 and to make a note of its characters, I readily recognized it in the 

 " Blake " collection, and propose to name it Ant. spinifera. It was ob- 

 tained by the "Blake " (1878-79) at ten stations, in depths of from 80i 

 to 297 fathoms. It was most abimdant at No. 2G9, in 124 fothoms, off 

 St. Vincent, and was also dredged in 278 fathoms, off St. Lucia, by 

 the " Investigator." Its more striking distinctive characters are as 

 follows : — 



Antedon spinifera n. sp. 



Cirrhi 12-20, long and slender, composed of 40-60 joints, the later ones of 

 which bear dorsal spines. The rays may fork four times, each subdivision 

 consisting of two joints not united by a syzygy. Usually, however, there are 

 not more than two axillaries, the distichal and the palmar, above the radials ; 

 and palmars are frequently only developed upon the inner pair of the four sec- 

 ondary arms, so that there are thirty arms in all (as in the Paris specimen), 

 viz. six on each ray, in the following order : 1, 2, 2, L Tolerably large sharp 

 spines are scattered irregularly over the calyx and arm-bases. The arm-joints 

 are triangular in outline, alternating with one another from side to side ; and 

 from near the base of each triangular surface there rises a strong curved spine, 

 which projects forwards and slightly outwards. On the lower parts of the arms, 

 therefore, there is a doulile row of these spines alternating right and left of the 

 median dorsal line ; but farther out, as the joints become more and more com- 

 pressed laterally, the two rows gradually coalesce into a single median one, the 

 spines at the same time becoming less and less prominent. The disk bears a 

 fairly complete anambulacral plating, and there is a dguble row of plates along 

 each edge of tlie [)innule ambulacra, viz. side plates resting on the pinnule 

 joints and supporting the covering plates which overlap one another alternately 

 from opposite sides. The color varies from almost wlute through pale straw- 



