434 Deep-sea Trawling off the 8.W. Coast of Ireland: 



plate is elongated, and the more so when there are seven than 

 when there are eight plates, while the terminal int'eromarginal 

 plate is triangular. The abactinal plates of the disk are uni- 

 formly granulated and are irregular in shape, with a not very 

 well-marked tendency to be hexagonal in form. The ultimate, 

 and sometimes also the penultimate, superomarginal of either 

 side of each arm is not separated from its fellow by any of 

 the abactinal plates. 



The granules of the plates of the actinal are somewhat 

 coarser than those of the abactinal surface ; on each side of 

 the middle line of the arm there are two rows of plates, one of 

 which extends to the end of the arm and the other halfway. 

 The adambulacral s]Mnes are short and square at their tip, so 

 that they differ hardly at all from the granules of the adjacent 

 plates ; they are arranged in a single row, and there appear 

 to be ordinarily five on each adambulacral plate. The groove 

 is exceedingly narrow and the tube-feet are not to be seen in 

 the single specimen collected. There are no signs of any 

 pedicellarias, and there are no spines. The madreporite is 

 undistinguishable. The appearance of the specimen in alcohol 

 is somewhat leathery, owing to the comparatively thick mem- 

 brane with which it is invested. 



Dredged at 1000 fath. 



I have particularly compared this new species with the 

 description of Stephanaster Bourgeti*^ Perrier, which Mr. 

 Sladen has lately transferred to the genus Astrogoniam and 

 which was dredged off St. Vincent and the Cape- Verde Islands 

 at 189-317 fath. ; but the difference in the proportion of the 

 greater and less rays, the larger number and different form of 

 the marginal plates, and the absence of the remarkable pedi- 

 cellariffi in our species are quite sufficient to show that there 

 is no close relationship between these two forms. 



Nympliaster protentus. 

 Nymphaster 2irotentus, Sladen, Chall. Eep. Ast. p. 303. 



Five specimens, one quadriradiate, from 315 fath. 



1 was at first inclined to regard these as examples of a new 

 species ; but a careful examination shows that they vary a 

 good deal among themselves, and a more careful study of Mr. 

 Sladen's description leads me to the conclusion that it is a 

 specimen and not a species which he has described. As the 

 '■ Challenger ' collection of Asteroids has not yet been depo- 

 sited in its future home, the British Museum, I have had to 

 content myself with the description and figures. 

 * Ann. Sci. Nat. six. (1886), art. 8, p. 81. 



