REPORT ON THE CRINOIDEA. 353 
Together with the two large specimens of Metacrinus nobilis which agree very well 
in their general characters, there was also obtained a fragment of stem which appears to 
belong to this species. The internodes are much shorter than in the type, and contain a 
number of thin joints which are evidently newly formed ; while there are traces of inter- 
articular pores in its upper portion. As, however, the cirri are all directed downwards it 
is possible that the individual was in a semi-free condition, with a comparatively short 
stem like Pentacrinus maclearanus (Pl. XVI.) or Pentacrinus alternicirrus. At one of 
the nodes a cirrus-socket is totally undeveloped; and the same appears to be the case at 
another node farther down the stem, where a large Verruca covers the whole of one side 
of the nodal joint, also extending on to those above and below it. 
Besides the two large specimens mentioned above there was also obtained at Station 
192 a smaller individual which agrees so closely with the type of this species that I find 
some difficulty in separating it, although the two forms appear at first sight to be totally 
different. The stem, which is much more rounded than in the type (Pl. XLI. figs. 7, 8), 
is barely 5 mm. in diameter; and although the internodal joints are generally smooth, 
their angles are sometimes slightly produced outwards, while indications of horizontal 
ridges appear here and there below the twelfth node. The grouping of the arm-divisions 
is essentially the same as in the larger type, so far as can be made out in the fragmentary 
condition of the dried specimen; and in default of further information respecting 
its characters, I do not see how to classify it otherwise than as an immature or smaller 
variety of Metacrinus nobilis. 
5. Metacrinus varians, n. sp. (Pl. XLIV.; Pl. XLVII. figs. 6-12). 
Dimensions. 
Length of stem to thirty-second node, ; ; : : . 94:00 cm. 
Diameter of stem, . : F F : ; ; : 5:25 mm. 
Longest cirrus (fifty joints), . A 0 : 5 : = 40:00, 
Diameter of calyx, : 0 ; : 4 S500; 
Length of arm (ninety joints beyond palmar axillary), : 0 oo 00; 
Length of distichal pinnule (eighteen joints), : , ; ee LGLOO Ms, 
Length of first pinnule after palmar axillary (nineteen joints), F A LOO lass 
Stem moderately robust, with a simple pentagonal outline, its sides being nearly flat, 
and scarcely grooved at all. Six to ten internodal joints (usually eight or nine), with 
smooth sides and but faintly crenulated edges. Nodal joints bluntly stellate, with 
moderately wide sockets which take up their whole height, extending well downwards on 
to the infra-nodals and also upwards on to. the supra-nodals. Cirri of forty-five to fifty 
very uniform joints, the lowest of which are but little wider than their successors ; the 
(ZOOL, CHALL, EXP,—PART Xxxu,—1884.) li 45 
