36 On new Sj)ecie$ 0/ Asteriidaj a ?i(/ Linkiidge. 



Asterias Cunninghanii. 



Five convex rajs, thick at the base ; ambulacral spines in a 

 single row ; a double or triple series of ventral spines ; the 

 marginal dorsal rows of sj)ines simple, the dorsal ones irre- 

 gularly distributed. 



HcJ). Straits of Magellan, Sandy Point. Collected by 

 Dr. R. O. Cunningham, and presented by the Lords of the 

 Admiralty. 



Asterias meridionalis. 



Very like the preceding {A. Cunninghami) ^ but with six 

 rays and the ambulacral spines disposed in two series. 



Hob. ? [Antarctic Expedition). Presented by the 



Lords of the Admiralty, and collected during the voyage of 

 the ^ Erebus ' and '■ Terror.' 



Scytaster gomophia. 



Much resembling Gomophia cBgyptiaca^ Grray, but with the 

 rays a little shorter, and with the dorsal tubercles entirely 

 granulous. 



Hah. New Caledonia. 



Scytaster ohtusus. 



A species near to S. variolatus^ but distinguished from it 

 by the obtuse form of the rays, the less elevation of the dorsal 

 ossicles, and the less depth of the poriferous areas. 



Hah. Phihppine Islands. 



Observations. 

 Asterias Douglasi. 



I have designated with this name a species which, in the 

 British Museum, bears the name of A. Katherince, in the 

 handwriting of Dr. Gray, but which is quite distinct from 

 the veritable types of the latter species. A. Douglasi ex- 

 ists also in the Jardin des Plantes ; but among a certain 

 number of examples of A. piolaris which Dr. Liitken sent to 

 me, I found a specimen scarcely distinguishable from the 

 species in question. I am therefore inclined to consider that 

 A, Douglasi really is only a form (with more numerous spines, 

 truncated and crowded in groups one against another) of 

 A. polar is from Greenland — which must be a very poly- 

 morphous species if a sjDecimen must also be assigned to it 

 which was sent under this name by the Museum of Compa- 

 rative Zoology of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and which I 

 shall describe in a subsequent work under the name of 

 A. horealis. 



