6) HERAPATH, ON THE GENUS SYNAPTA. 
Another Synapta, the S. 6i-dentata, is obtained from 
China; it has 12 tentacles, with 4-lobed digits surrounded 
by a sheath. 
Anchors short, stout, straight projecting “beams,” the 
flukes smooth and bifid in most instances. 
Anchor plates obvate; truncated at articular end; pierced 
by numerous circular holes, diminishing from the centre to 
the circumference; margin never completed, edge broken 
like wire gauze. As far as the anthor’s own preparations are 
concerned, this description does not bear out the last proposi- 
tion. The anchor plates are complete, and rounded by a 
smooth edge. Messrs. Woodward and Barrett’s description 
was probably taken from a young immature specimen. 
The Belfast specimens somewhat differ from the description 
of S. inherens, as the mouth has, in addition to the circle of 
digitate or pinnate tentacles at the extreme edge of the disk, an 
inner layer or circle of simple tentacula immediately surround- 
ing the oral aperture. These are equal in number to the 
external circle, and the anchor plate is not quite formed on the 
model of the engravings which accompany the paper of 
Professor Wyville Thomson in the ‘ Mic. Journal,’ loc. cit. 
They are distinctly seven-holed, siz apertures surrounding 
a central opening, all- of which are more oval in form than 
round ; the outer margin is smooth, but the edges of the 
apertures are crenated; the anchors are longer than the 
plates ; the terminating articulating extremities of the plates 
are pointed, and pierced by numerous smaller openings. There 
are no projecting rostra in the convex edges of the anchors, 
which differ from the S. Duvernea of Quatrefages. 
The specimens from Antrim, as Prof. Wyville Thomson 
states, differ from both S. inkerens and S. digitata in the 
fact that the anchors are very short in the shafts ; the anterior 
or convex border is marked by a central depression. The 
length of the shaft equals the breadth of the flukes from tip to 
tip. The anchor plates are mostly incomplete, but they 
agree in those which are perfect in being obcordate, or rather 
the outer edge is half the section of an oval; the edge 
nearest the articulating process being rectangular to that 
projection and straight. This process has parallel sides and 
rounded end, with two or three rounded apertures piercing 
it in a longitudinal line, each of which may be compared to 
the eye of a needle. The anchor plate has 6 large holes 
arranged as a pyramid, counting from the straight edge of 
the buckler; 3 im the first, 2 in the second, and 1 at the 
apex, which is of course nearer the greater convexity of the 
shield or anchor plates; the two apertures on the median 
