272 Verrill, Notes on Radiata. 



Dr, J. E. Gray has given tlie name, Petalster ColumhicB, to a spe- 

 cies from " St. Bias," collected by IT. Cuming, which is, apparently, 

 allied to this, but wliich cannot be the same if correctly described. 

 The diagnosis, which is too imperfect for reliable identification, is as 

 follows : " Rays elongated, slender, gradually tapering ; tubercles 

 short, with crowded groups of rather large, acute spines, and a fringe 

 of very fine radiating ones." 



In L. tessellata the rays are certainly not slender, when compared 

 with other species of the genus, and the " spines " on the paxilla? are 

 not acute. 



It is probable that Gray's species has not yet been rediscovered, as 

 is the case with many other starfishes described by him from the col- 

 lections made by Cuming, on the same coast. But if intended for 

 the present species, the description is so inapplicable and imperfect 

 that it cannot be deemed sufficient to characterize it. 



Astropecten fragilis YerriU. sp. nov. 



A thin, depressed species, with slender, acutely tapering rays, 

 which, measuring from the center, are about four and a half times 

 the radius of the disk, A specimen measuring 2-3 inches from center 

 to tip of ray has about 40 marginal plates. Each interambulacral 

 plate usually bears three slender spines at the inner edge, the mid- 

 dle one being longest, and outside of these a single longer and 

 stouter, pointed spine. The lower marginal plates are covered on 

 their lower side with sharply pointed spinose granulations and bear 

 numerous small sharp spines, mostly along their outer edges. At the 

 margin these become larger and longer, each plate bearing three or 

 four spines which may be considered marginal, of which the upper- 

 most is usually longest. These are round, rather slender, tapering 

 and acute, slightly curved outward, diminishing gradually in size to- 

 ward the tip of the ray. The upper marginal plates are low and 

 quite short, those at the interradial angle being shortest, those to- 

 ward the tip of the rays becoming very small. These are coarsely 

 granulated and destitute of spines or tubercles, except three or four 

 of those at the base of the rays, which, in the larger specimens, bear 

 at the inner edge a small, rounded tubercle, most prominent on the 

 interradial pair of plates, which are also somewhat higher than the 

 rest. The dorsal area is about one and a half times the width of the 

 marginal plates. The lower marginal plates are but little produced 

 beyond the upper. 



One of the larger specimens measures 2 "3 inches from center to tip 

 of rays ; "5 to edge of disk ; width of ray at base "6 ; its dorsal area '4 ; 



