Verrill.] 386 [April 7, 



those below pink with white tips; the general color of the lower sur- 

 face yellowish white. 



Echinaster spinailosus Verrill, sp. nov. 



A species with five long, tapering rays, covered with very numerous, 

 small, blunt spines, arranged in many rows. 



The rays are slender, elongated and regularly rounded, gradually 

 tapering. Radius of disk to that of rays about as 1:4.5. Spines of 

 the upper surface small and very numerous, short, mostly blunt, 

 arranged in many somewliat irregular rows, two or three often grouped 

 together upon one plate, the whole number in ^ each row being forty 

 or more. The whole number of rows, above and below, exclusive of 

 those near the gi'ooves, varies according to the age, from fifteen to 

 twenty-one or more. The interambulacral plates bear an inner very 

 small and slender spine, and outside of this two much larger ones, 

 similar to those of the upper surface, one being placed farther back 

 than the other, so as to form two alternating rows. Outside of these 

 there is a row of similar spines, which are somewhat appressed to the 

 surface and point toward the margin of the ray. The plates of the 

 upper surface are prominent and finely granulated. A medium sized 

 specimen measures from centre to edge of disk .45 inch; to end of 

 rays 2.10; length of dorsal spines .02 to .03. The largest specimens 

 are about six inches in diameter. « 



Egmont Key, west coast of Florida, common; E. Jewett. 



This species is more nearly allied to E. multispina Gray (sp.) (^E. 

 BrazUlensis M. and Tr.) than to the other Atlantic species. The lat- 

 ter differs, however, in having fewer rows of spines (nine to eleven), 

 while the spines themselves are larger, more conical, and acute. The 

 rays, also, as described by Gray, are " short, depressed, broad, rather 

 more than twice as long as the width of the body, blunt at the end," 

 but in this species they are long, round and tajiering, the form being 

 quite constant in more than one hundred specimens, which are in the 

 collection. 



E. spinosus, from the Florida Reefs and the West Indies, differs in 

 its much stouter form, with shorter and much larger rays, and very 

 much larger and fewer, sharp spines, which form only about ten or 

 twelve longitudinal rows, with about twelve or fifteen spines in each 

 row. 



Pteraster Danse Verrill, sp. nov. 



Upper surface moderately convex; radius of disk to that of rays as 

 1:1.18; rays broad, subtriangular, the tips recurved so as to expose 



