172 Natural History Bulletin. 



granules and roll in a vertical direction, a true trade-mark of 

 the Astrophytid.-e. A verv prominent row of stout papil- 

 la reaches between the bases of adjacent arms, separating the 

 upper from the lower surface of the disk. The mouth- 

 papills and teeth are all spiniform. The tentacle-scales are 

 usually four in number, and are crowned with a clump of 

 spines. There are minute booklets on the granules on the 

 dorsal surface of the arms. This species is corn-color in 

 life, and has the most rigid arms of any Ophiuran with which 

 I a:m acquainted, and its numerous spines, together with a 

 habit of rolling the arms up into a tight coil, made it exceed- 

 ingl}- troublesome to extricate from the tangles. 



Coming to the typical basket-tish. i. e., those with branched 

 arms, we have first to notice a magnificent specimen that 

 came up on the anchor one morning near Sand Key. This 

 was Astrophyton costosum Seba, the same species as that 

 found at the Tortugas: but this particular specimen was a 

 remarkably fine one. and richh- deserved our thanks for its 

 thoughtfulness in climbing onto our anchor and being hauled 

 aboard. This species does not appear to be so brittle as A^ 

 agassizii Stimp. Another species was from much deeper 

 water, and was quite common below the one-hundred-fathom 

 line. This is Asirophyton niticronatiun Lyman, and is charac- 

 terized by high radial ribs, each bearing an irregular double 

 row of conspicuous thorny spines. The center of the disk is 

 depressed and crowded with similar but smaller spines. The 

 proximal portions of the arms are also ornamented with spines 

 and marked with cross-bars of brown, the general color of the 

 animal being- a ligrht. buffy yellow. There is but one madre- 

 poric body, and the tentacle-scales are considerably smaller 

 than in other species. The granules on the distal branches of 

 the arms bear booklets resembling those found on Astro- 

 gomphiis vallatus. with which it was frequently associated. 

 This species was brought up clinging to deep-water gorgoni- 

 ans. 



About fifteen species of Echinoidea were secured. These, 

 also, were found in definite spots where there were innumer- 



