CHARACTERISTIC DEEP-SEA TYPES. — CRINOIDS. 125 
an examination of several hundred individuals, that present any 
departure from the ordinary pinnule arrangement. 
The two Comatule which from their abundance seem especially 
characteristic of the neighborhood of the Caribbean Islands, 
ranging from Santa Cruz to Grenada, are an Antedon and an 
Actinometra, both of which had been obtained previously to 
the “Blake” expedition. In the year 1870, Duchassaing 
brought from Guadeloupe to the Paris Museum a fine specimen 
of Antedon, with thirty very spiny arms. Carpenter readily 
recognized it in the “ Blake” collection, and has named it Ante- 
don spinifera. (Fig. 417.) The common Actinometra of the 
Caribbean Sea is 
a singularly protean 
species, which was 
obtained at thirty 
stations by the 
*Blake." The 
“ Hassler” dredged $ 
it off Barbados, and 
it was found by the 
“ Investigator " off 
St. Lucia, and also P 
attached to the Mar- Fig. 417. — Antedon spinifera. 1, 
tinique and Domin- 
ica cable. It ranges from 73 to 278, and possibly to 380 
fathoms. Not only is it everywhere very abundant, but it pre- 
sents a most remarkable series of minor variations on one fairly 
distinct type, which, under the name of Actinometra pulchella 
(Fig. 418), includes no less than six forms apparently distinct 
at first sight. Most of the specimens have twenty arms, occa- 
sionally a smaller number ; some, however, have as few as twelve 
to fifteen. Actinometra pulchella is also interesting as fur- 
nishing an instance of variation. from the ordinary type of five 
rays. One specimen, like that dredged by the “ Challenger," has 
six rays. It is curious that this variation, which is common in 
Rhizocrinus, should be so rare among the Comatule. 
The results of Carpenter's examination of the * Challenger ” 
and “Blake” collections, and of the numerous Comatule to 
