1843.] Linnean Society. 167 



March 21. 



The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Arthur Henfrey was elected an Associate. 



J. Janson, Esq., F.L.S., exhibited hving flowering plants of the 

 "hungry rice" of Sierra Leone, Paspalum exile, Kipp., described at 

 p. 157, raised from seeds brought from Sierra Leone by Robert 

 Clarke, Esq. 



Read a memoir " OnPectinura, a new genus of Ophiuridce, and 

 on the species of Ophiura inhabiting the Eastern Mediterranean." 

 By Edward Forbes, Esq., F.L.S., Professor of Botany in King's Col- 

 lege, London. 



Professor Forbes states that in his late researches in the .^gean 

 Sea he found ten species of Starfishes of the order Ophiuridee, several 

 of which are undescribed. In the present memoir he confines him- 

 self to those belonging to the genus Ophiura, and to an alUed genus, 

 hitherto uncharacterized, to which he gives the name of Pectinura. 

 This genus is founded on a small starfish brought up by the dredge 

 from the depth of 100 fathoms on the coast of Lycia, and is charac- 

 terized as follows : — 



Pectinura, 



Coi-pus orbiculare, squamosum, granulosum, ad peripheriam radiatum ; 



radiis simplicibus, squamosis, in corporis discum subprolongatis ; squamis 



radiorura lateralibus adpressis, in rnarginibus superioribus spiniferis ; 



ossiculis ovarialibus binis in corporis lobos non productis. 

 P. VESTiTA, disco orbiculari, radiis convexiusculis ; squamis superioribus 



rotundatis : lateralibus 8 spiniferis. — Lat. disci ^ unc. 



Professor Forbes states that he should scarcely have ventured to 

 establish a genus on the single specimen of this species which he 

 possesses, and which is somewhat imperfect in the raj's, had he not 

 had an opportunity of examining a large foreign species, which shows 

 it to be a well-marked genus, ha^'ing a rather closer affinity with 

 Ophiura than with Ophiocoma. It differ.^ from the former in having 

 the disc clothed with granules, in the absence of the pectinated 

 scales embracing the origins of the rays, and in the ovarian plates 

 (not soldered into one as in Ophiura) not encroaching on the body ; 

 and from Ophiocoma by the lateral ray-plates overlapping each other 

 and the posterior ray-plates as in Ophiura, and instead of ha\'ing the 

 spines on a transverse ridge or keel having them articulated to their 

 superior margins, so that when the animal is dead they lie close to 

 the rays and do not bristle out as in Ophiocoma. 



