224 



to be broken off, and is reproduced within a year. The Blue 

 Tailed species, however, seems to be uncommonly brittle. 



Mr. Stimpson presented descriptions of two new species 

 of Ophiolepis, from the Southern coast of the United 

 States. 



O. graciUima. Rays very long and slender. Disk very soft 

 and flexible, pentangular, slightly projecting and emarginate at 

 the insertion of the rays, covered above and at the sides with 

 crowded, minute scales, except opposite the origin of the rays, 

 where there are two prominent, narrow, elongated, sub-oblong 

 scales, which are truncated at their outer extremities, touch each 

 other along most of their length, but narrow, and hence diverge 

 inwards. They extend to about half the distance from the cen- 

 tre to the edge of the disk, and around them the crowded scales 

 are larger than elsewhere. Below, the plates forming the sides 

 of the mouth-star, whose rays are short and broad, are three in 

 number. The interbrachial plates are irregularly ovate. 



The rays are in length twenty-four times the width of the 

 disk, and taper only towards their extremities. They are some- 

 what carinated above, near their origins, and have sub-rhom- 

 boidal superior plates. The lateral spines are five in number in 

 each row near the origins of the rays ; this number decreases 

 towards the extremities ; the middle spines are largest and equal 

 in length to two thirds the width of the ray. Length of each 

 ray, 5.5 in. ; width, 0.07 in. ; diameter of disk, 0.23 in. 



In the living animal the disk was dark gray above, with a dark 

 fawn-colored spot in the middle, the plates at the origins of the 

 arms being black. The first three segments of each arm beyond 

 the disk were edged with black ; the remaining segments were 

 either light gray, dark gray, or black, generally alternating. In 

 the middle of each segment was a white space, so that each ray 

 appeared to have a median white line. 



This is a very singular species, belonging to the same group 

 with O. filiformis^ of Europe. One of my specimens is a foot 

 in diameter, while the rays are mere threads and the disk only a 

 quarter of an inch wide. In each ray there are about three 

 hundred and thirty joints. The disk is very soft and easily 



