1907-8. ] NOTES ON THE OPHIURIAN GENUS, PROTASTER. 365 
perience. It was first referred to as Ophiura by Forbes and Sowerby and 
then lost; on being regained, it formed the material for Ramsay’s 
description, the essentials of which are the absence of a disc and the fact 
that the ambulacral ossicles alternate and are triangular in shape. It is 
also interesting to note that Professor Ramsay is inclined to place the 
form under the genus 7enzaster of Billings. 
In the fifth volume of the Journal of the Cincinnati Society of 
Natural History for the year 1882, from the pen of S. A. Miller, appeared 
the description of 7@nzaster elegans from the upper part of the Hudson 
River formation at Waynesville, Ohio. This species has no disc, accord- 
ing to the author. The ossicles are most distinctly alternate in position 
and decidedly boot-shaped in their inferior aspect. Were it not for the 
absence of the disc one would not hesitate to call it a typical Protaster. 
Another form is described in the same volume as Protaster miamtensis ; 
it is from the same horizon. A disc is present but the ossicles are 
subquadrangular on the ventral side. 
In his Monograph on British Fossil Echimoderms, Dr. Thomas 
Wright refers to Protaster miltonz, Salter, P. leptosoma, Salter, and P. 
saltert, Forbes (Sowerby) also to Yensaster of Billings. This author 
ascribes all the Protasters to the Astertd@ on account of the discovery of a 
madreporite. 
Protaster daoulasensis is described by Davy in the Bulletins of the 
Geological Survey of France, Series iii, Vol. xiv, also a species by 
Dewalque, the reference to which has not been ascertained. 
An important contribution to the literature of the Fossil Ophiurians 
was contributed to Palzeontographica and appeared in Vol. xxxii for the 
years 1885-1886. The author, Dr. B. Stiirtz, attempts a revision of the 
various forms and presents a system of classification, the essentials of 
which are as follows: Group I —Protophiuree—Ambulacral ossicles 
opposite. Most forms have a dorsal rosette of radial plates on the disc. 
Dorsal integument of the arms is variable. The species included are 
Protaster miltont and P. leptosoma also a new genus and species, 
Furcaster paleozoicus. 
Group II.—Ophio-encrinasterie—The dorsal rosette is present, the 
ambulacral ossicles are alternate, there is a double row of spine bearing 
side plates and the oral apparatus is derived from these latter plates 
The species included are Protaster forbest, both of Billings’ species of 
