152 VERRILL 



op. cit., 1875, p. 335 (no descr.). Bell, 1881, pp. 495, 505. Whiteaves, 



Trans. Royal Soc. Canada, iv, p. 116, 1887. 

 Asterias brachiata Perrier, Arch. Zool. Exper., rv, pp. 329, 357, 1875 (locality, 



Gulf of Georgia) (no»L.). 

 Asterias (Diplasterias) epichlora de Loriol, Mem. Soc. Phys. et Hist. Nat., 



Geneve, xxxii, p. 19, pi. iii, figs. 2-2d, 187 1 (non Brandt). 



Several specimens which evidently belong to this species, were col- 

 lected by the Harriman Expedition. 



When well grown it is a large, five-rayed starfish with a small disk 

 and long, round, tapering rays, with a rough uneven dorsal surface, 

 covered with short, unequal, obtusely rounded or capitate spines, 

 which are arranged in an irregularly reticulated or areolated pat- 

 tern, and always in short rows and more or less clustered or acer- 

 vate. The inferomarginal and actinal plates bear usually four to six 

 or more rather regular rows of longer and larger, mostly blunt spines. 

 Two irregular series of slender adambulacral spines. 



Dr. Rathbun has forwarded two photographs (here reproduced, 

 pi. xxv) of a part of one ray of the type, which seems to be all that 

 is preserved in the U. S. National Museum. Very little can be added 

 to the original description from this fragment. This specimen was 

 less than half the full size. The original description was as follows: 



" Rays five, slender and somewhat pentagonal, regularly tapering 

 to a point ; disc small. Proportion of the diameters, i : 7. Ambu- 

 lacral pores in four regular rows. Ambulacral spines in two or three 

 rows, generally two, but occasionally one, to each plate; they are 

 sub-cylindrical, and bear clusters of minor pedicellariae at the middle 

 of their outer sides. There are four rows of ventral spines (rarely 

 five, near the base of the ray), which are longer than the ambula- 

 crals, slender, with acute tips pointing outward. At the bases of the 

 ventral spines there are numerous minor j>edicellarise, clustered at 

 the outer side in the inner rows, but forming wreaths around those 

 of the outer row. The marginal row of dorsal spines, on the side of 

 the ray, consists of about fifty spines as slender as the ventrals, but 

 capitate, with truncated tips. The other dorsal spines, above, are of 

 two kinds, a larger and a smaller. The larger ones are few in num- 

 ber, shorter but much thicker than the ventrals, capitate, with flat- 

 tened heads, and are arranged in a pretty regular though somewhat 

 zigzag median row of about twenty-five spines, crowded near the 

 disc, but farther apart near the extremity of the ray. Between this 

 row and the marginal row there are scattered a few more of the 

 larger kind, sometimes in clusters or short rows of three or four. On 

 the disc they form a more or less distinct pentagon, within which 



