308 VERRILL 



the Canadian Geological Survey, from British Columbia and the 

 Queen Charlotte Islands, Vancouver Island, etc. It has not been 

 recorded except from very shallow water or between tides. Dr. 

 Fisher's records are from Sitka to Monterey, California, shores, 



DERMASTERIAS IMBRICATA, var. VALVULIFERA 

 Verrill, nov. 



Plate xcvii, figures 2-2^. 



This name is proposed for the form of this species having many 

 (often very numerous) valvular pedicellarise on the dorsal surface. 

 Usually there is also a row on the actinal side, external to and 

 parallel with the inner adambulacral spines, while others may occur 

 on the interactinal areas, either centrally or more often proximally, 

 near the jaws, in pairs. The actinal pedicellarise mostly have two 

 broadly rounded jaws, sometimes three; those of the dorsal surface 

 mostly have three or four narrower valves, but some may have two ; 

 others five or six jaws (see pi. xcv, figs. 2-26). The specimen 

 figured from Sitka has the radii 24 mm. and 38 mm. ; another from 

 the same place has the radii 38 mm. and 77 mm. Larger specimens 

 occur. 



Except for the presence of many pedicellarise this variety does not 

 differ much from the ordinary variety with few or no pedicellarise. 

 This does not depend upon age, for both large and small specimens 

 occur of each form. Very young specimens, as usual in other genera, 

 lack pedicellariae. 



All the specimens seen are from southern Alaska, at Sitka, etc. 



Family OPHW1ASTERW2E Verrill. 



Ophidiasteridce VERRILL, Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci., i, part 2, p. 344, 1867. 

 Linckida PERRIER, Revision Stellerides, p. 117, 1875. 



Linckiida SLADEN (pars), op. cit., 1889, p. 397. Fisher, op. cit, 191 ib, p. 240. 

 Linckiada VIGUIER, Squelette des Stell., p. 144, 1879. 



Form stellate, usually with five slender rays, but the number is 

 variable in some autotomous species. Marginal plates usually small 

 and not conspicuous. Abactinal and marginal ossicles usually tes- 

 selated or subimbricated, in most cases granulose (covered with 

 rather thick, smooth skin in Leiaster), rarely spinose. 



Papulae usually numerous, mostly abactinal and lateral in groups, 

 sometimes single; in the majority of the genera they occur also 

 below the marginals, or between the interactinal plates. 



Adambulacral plates with either granules or spinules. 



