476 Prof. F. J. Bell on Asterias rubens and the 



R = 7 r to 4 r. 



Arms generally five, rather stout, rounded, tapering very 

 gradually, but not very narrow even at tip *, sometimes quite 

 broad there. Dorsal surface covered with spines, subequal, 

 generally of moderate size, closely packed, moderately nume- 

 rous or sparse, in form they are pointed or more or less or 

 quite blunt at their tips ; a single, often prominent, row, 

 which is either nearly straight or slightly zigzag, and then 

 appearing at times to be double, runs along the middle of the 

 back of each arm. Ambulacra wide, bordered by one or two 

 rows of spines, when the inner is the thinner. A rather well- 

 marked groove separates the outer adambulacral row from the 

 next, which with another forms a pretty regular series along 

 either side of the lower surface of each arm ; the outer of 

 these has groups of two or three spines set a little obliquely 

 to the long axis of the arm. Further out there is a wide 

 groove, and at the infero-lateral edge of the arm there is an 

 irregularly double row of spines, which are often the strongest 

 and best-developed of any on the body ; sometimes, however, 

 the ventral spines are as strong or stronger. Madreporite 

 rather coarsely striate. A circlet of minor pedicellaria? at the 

 base of the spines ; major pedicellarise f scattered over the 



* Except in A. rubens, var. attenuata. 



t I greatly regret to find that, by using them in his ' Challenger ' 

 Report, Mr. Sladen has given to Dr. Herapath's names a vogue which 

 they do not deserve. The distinction between " scissors '' and " shears " 

 drawn by Mr. Sladen (Journ. Linn. Soc. xiv. (1879) p. 433, footnote) is 

 not recognized either by lexicographers or by less learned persons, as the 

 accompanying citations from the ' Imperial Dictionary ' will show. If 

 the connotation could be reversed and the term forcipiform be applied to 

 the " pedicellaires droits " of Perrier and the forficiform to the " pedicel- 

 laires croises " there would be a closer resemblance between the name 

 and the thing named. But such a course is impossible now, and we must, 

 I am afraid, be content with the much less expressive terras " major " and 

 " minor.'' 



"Forceps. A general name used for a two-bladed instrument on the 

 principle of pincers or tongs, used for seizing and holding and for extract- 

 ing objects which it would be impracticable thus to treat with the fingers. 



"Scissors. A cutting instrument resembling shears, but smaller, con- 

 sisting of two cutting blades movable on a pin in the centre, by which 

 they are fastened, and which cut from opposite sides against an object 

 placed between them. 



"Shears. An instrument consisting of two movable blades with bevel 

 edges, used for cutting cloth and other substances by interception between 

 the two blades. Shears differ from scissors chiefly in being larger, and 

 they vary in form according to the different operations they are called 

 upon to perform. The shears used by farriers, sheep-shearers, weavers, 

 &c. are made of a single piece of steel, bent round till the blades meet, 

 which open by themselves by the elasticity of the metal." 



