I JO Natural History Bulletin. 



covered with scale-like plates, large, triangular, radial shields, 

 a fringe of scale-like genital plates extending around over the 

 bases of the arms, and ver}' long arm-joints. The actinal sur- 

 face was peculiar in the round, scale-fringed pores for the 

 tentacles, the very large mouth-shields, the slender side m.outh- 

 shields. and three curiouslv shaped mouth-papilla?. There 

 were three very short arm-spines, the middle one being the 

 shortest. Another species closely allied to the last has much 

 longer arm-spines and differently shaped arm-plates. They 

 came from comparatively shallow water. A small species of 

 Amphiura has two mouth-papillae, one tentacle-scale, and six 

 unequal arm-spines. Depth about one hundred and thirt}- 

 fathoms. The genus Ofhiocoma is represented by a single 

 species and a single specimen. The disk is closely covered 

 with stumpy nodules or blunt spines, there are two tentacle- 

 scales, five or six arm-spines, five mouth-papillee, and ver\' 

 numerous, closelv set, tooth-papilla?. The mouth-shield is very 

 large and roughly heart-shaped. A species of Ophiocamax 

 dredged from near the one-hundred-fathom line shows an 

 approach to Astrophxton in its spiniform mouth-papillse and 

 tooth-papilla?, although in other respects it is a typical ser- 

 pent-star. The disk is symmetrically studded with spinulose 

 stumps, and the radial shields are small and triangular. There 

 are nine long arm-spines which bear spinelets over their entire 

 surface instead of along the sides only. A still nearer approach 

 to the basket-fish type is found in a species of Ophiomyxa, 

 which has four arm-spines that are larger and sharper than in 

 O. flacctda. Our specimens came from a depth of twenty to 

 sixtv fathoms. 



But the greatest surprise revealed by our dredges and 

 tangles while working on the Pourtales Plateau was the great 

 quantity of Astrgphytid.e. both simple-armed and branched. 

 As in the preceding group, we were constantly struck with 

 the tendencv on the part of single species to occur in great 

 numbers on definite spots of the sea bottom. Especially was 

 this true of the simple-armed forms, a group which none of 

 us had seen before our experience off the Cuban coast. On 



