14 MARINE INVERTEBRATA OF GRAND MANAN. 



ASTERIAD^E. 



ASTERACANTHION RUBENS, M. et T., 1. c., 17. Specimens a foot or more in diameter 

 are very common just below low-water mark. 



A. VIOLACEUS, M. et T., 1. c., 16. A purple species about four inches in diameter. 

 The rays are rather narrow, and taper to a point. It is not common in this region. 



A. LITTORALIS, St., n. s. Body tumid, rays very broad. Ambulacral spines in 

 two rows, slender, blunt, or even clavate at their tips. Spines on the sides larger 

 than those on the back, but both short, blunt, and showing great uniformity in size 

 and distribution. Its color is always a dark green above, and it never exceeds an 

 inch and a half in diameter. It is very common among the fuci in the middle 

 region of the littoral zone, or even near high-water mark elsewhere I have never 

 found it. 



A. MULLERI, Sars., Wiegm. Archiv., x. 169. This remarkable species occurred 

 to me in 30 f, off the northern point of Duck Island. It is of a bright red color 

 above when alive, and may be readily distinguished from all others by the crown 

 surrounding the bases of the spines, which are arranged in distinct rows on the 

 sides of the rays. I have compared our specimens with some sent from Norway 

 by Sars himself. 



A. ALBULUS, St., n. s., Fig. 5. Small, depressed, of a uniform cream-color ; rays 

 very slender, each with a prominent rounded tuft of spines at its extremity. Am- 

 bulacra very broad, with about five rows of slender spines on each side. Back and 

 sides having a remarkably smooth appearance, which is found to result from their 

 being covered with closely set subquadrate tufts of short blunt spines. These 

 tufts are arranged very regularly in rows, which can be traced both longitudinally 

 and transversely. Those of the middle row are more closely set than the others, 

 thus giving each ray the appearance of having a median line. 



The number of rays is almost invariably six, one specimen only, out of fifty 

 taken, having five. And what is still more remarkable, four out of five of these 

 had three of the rays much shorter than the others. Some specimens had seven 

 rays. Were it not for the great numbers which I found every day, I should cer- 

 tainly have considered them as the distorted young of some other species. They 

 occurred most frequently among branching nullipores, in 4 or 5 fathoms, on the 

 east side of the islands. 



This species is very distinct from any yet described. It may probably form 

 another genus, when the four rows of suckers shall become a family character 

 instead of a generic one. 



LINKIA OCULATA, Forbes, Wern. Mem. Cribella oculaia, Forbes, Brit. Starf. 

 Asterias spongiosa, Gould, Desor. Abundant on the rocks about low-water mark. 



L. PERTUSA. Asterias pertusa, Mull. Ecliinaster Eschrichtii, M. et T. (?) Much 

 larger than the preceding, and with elongated rays, which narrow towards their 

 extremities. The color is also a paler red. Dredged in 30 fathoms, and found also 

 occasionally at low-water mark. 



SOLASTER ENDECA, Forbes, 1. c. This species is abundant on the rocks at low-water 



