40 ON THE ECHINODERMATA OF THE 



Sir Wyville Thomson likewise records the presence of a ten-armed variety in the 

 Faeroe channel at a depth of 610 fathoms, but gives no details of its characters. 



A variation of secondary importance occurs in the character of the paxillse, by the 

 length of the spinelets of the crown being sometimes reduced to extreme shortness, and 

 thereby imparting to the paxilla3 the appearance of small granulate cones. This 

 condition, however, is in a great measure the result of abrasion, and is dependent 

 consequently upon the special nature of the locality ; thus a Starfish inhabiting the 

 comparative calms of deep water would be subject to much less friction than one 

 frequenting a littoral district or amongst pebbly shingle. 



The interbrachial spaces are also liable to change, being sometimes quite naked, 

 whilst in other cases they are more or less filled with paxillary spinulation. 



Distribution. 



a. Northward up Smith Sound : Discovery Bay, lat. 81 41' N., 25 fms., hard 

 bottom (Naress Exped.), the most northern locality on record ; Cape Frazer, 80 fms. ; 

 Franklin-Pierce Bay, 15 fms., bottom temperature 29-5 Fahr. 



b. North of American Continent: Assistance Bay (Penny's Exped.), Newfoundland 

 (Verrill), Grand Manan (Stimpsori), Massachusetts (Verrill, Gould, &c.\ 



c. North of European Continent: Spitzbergen (LutJcen) ; Barents Sea, lat. 76 58' 

 N., long. 45 40' E., 110 fms. (' Willem Barents' Exped.); Finmark, Scandinavian coasts, 

 Iceland, Faroe Islands (LutJcen) ; British coasts ; French coast as far as the dept. of 

 Finisterre (LutJcen). 



d. North of Asiatic Continent : Behring's Straits 1 (under the name of A. affinis, 

 Brandt). 



Description of the Illustrations of this Species on Plate III. 



Fig. 1. Abactinal aspect of a young specimen. 



2. Actinal aspect of the same specimen : natural size. 



3. Portion near the middle of a ray, actinal aspect : magnified. 



4. Portion near the middle of a ray, abactinal aspect: magnified. 



SOLASTEE ENDECA (Gmel.\ Forles. Plate III, Figs. 5-8. 



1776. Asterias aspera, 0. F. Miiller, Zool. Dan. Prodr. p. 234. no. 2833. 



1788. Asterias endeca, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. linn. ed. xiii. p. 3162. 



1816. Asterias endeca, Lamarck, Anim. s. Vert. vol. ii. p. 560. no. 23. 



1828. Asterias endica, Fleming, Hist. British Animals, p. 487. 



1834. Asterias (Solasterias) endeca, Blainvillo, Manuel d'Actinologie, p. 241. 



1835. Asterias endeca, Johnston, Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. ix. p. 300, fig. 44. 

 1835. Stellonia endeca, Agassiz, Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Neufchatel, vol. i. p. 192. 



1839. Solaster endeca, Forbes, Mem. "Wern. Soc. vol. viii. p. 121. 



1840. Solaster (Endeca) endeca, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 183. 



1841. Solaster endeca, Forbes, Hist. British Starfishes, p. 109. 



1842. Solaster endeca, Muller & Troschel, System dcr Asteriden, p. 26. 



