578 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
11. Asterias (Cosmasterias) sulcifera (Valenciennes, M.S.), Perrier. 
Asteracanthion sulcifer (Valenciennes, M.S.), Perrier, 1869, Ann. Sci. Nat., 5e Série, t. xii. p. 235, 
pl. 1, figs. 14, a, 0, ¢. 
Asterias sulcifer, Perrier, 1875, Révis. Stell. Mus., p. 58 (Archives de Zool. expér., §. iv. p. 322). 
Locality.—Station 306a. In the Messier Channel, between Wellington Island and 
the west coast of Chili. January 2, 1876. Lat. 48° 27’ 0” &., long. 74° 30’ 0” W. 
Depth 345 fathoms. Blue mud. Bottom temperature 46°0 Fahr. ; surface temperature 
57°°5 Fahr. 
Remarks.—There are several large examples from the Messier Channel which I have 
referred to this species. They accord exactly with the description given by Perrier, and 
appear to me to resemble more closely the type specimens preserved in the Jardin des 
Plantes, at Paris, than those in the British Museum. It is not improbable that the latter 
may have to be ranked as a variety. The differences affect the number and size of the 
spinelets—characters, however, in which nearly every example shows some variation. 
C. Asterias scalprifera group: Subgenus SMILASTERIAS, nov. 
12. Asterias (Siilasterias) scalprifera, n. sp. (Pl. C. figs. 4-6; Pl. CIIL. figs. 1 and 2). 
Rays five. R= 58mm.;7=8mm. R>7~7._ Breadth of a raya little beyond the 
base, 11°5 mm. 
Rays elongate, subcylindrical, rather swollen near the base, but not abruptly, thence 
tapering gradually to the extremity. Disk small, convex and high. Interbrachial ares 
acutely angular, the rays appearing to be crushed together at the base. 
The abactinal area is beset with small plates, the majority of which are nearly as long 
as broad. A median radial series of plates rather larger than the others proceeds regularly 
and uninterruptedly from the disk to the extremity. The plates on each side of this can- 
not be said to form regular longitudinal lines, though a tendency towards this arrangement 
appears to be present ; a transverse correspondence of the plates is much more distinctly 
traceable. The plates bear a number of small, low, round-tipped, equal, papilliform spinelets, 
which are widely spaced upon the plate, and amongst them are large forcipiform pedicellariz 
widely spaced and isolated, and nearly as large as the spinelets, from which they can only 
be distinguished by careful examination with a magnifying-glass. No definite order of 
arrangement of the spinelets and pedicellariz on the plates is to be observed, but owing 
to the presence of indistinct transverse wrinkles and sutures, and the transverse corre- 
spondence of plates above mentioned, a certain general transverse character is given to the 
disposition of the spinulation as a whole. One or two papule are present in the inter- 
spaces between the plates. 
The armatwre of the adambulacral plates consists of three spinelets closely placed at 
the base, but radiating a little apart, and forming a transverse and very slightly oblique 
