Miscellaneous. 261. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Note on the Brisinge. By M. Epu. Prerrimr. 
In August 1853 Asbjornssen, when dredging in the Hardanger- 
fjord, brought up, from a depth of 100 or 200 fathoms, a large star- 
fish, to which he gave the name of Brisinga endecacnemos. The 
Brisinge have since then been met with several times; but they 
have always remained precious rarities. The two expeditions of the 
‘ Travailleur’ have placed in our hands a magnificent, nearly perfect 
example, sixteen well-preserved disks, two very young individuals, 
and a great number of separate but entire arms. 
The aumber of species of Brisinga at present described is three, 
namely B. endecacnemos, Asb., B. coronata, O. Sars, and B. ameri- 
cana, Verr. Our Hymenodiscus Agassiz is also an animal very 
nearly allied to the true Brisinge. Most of the specimens collected 
by the ‘ Travailleur’ in the Atlantic closely approached B. coronata, 
without, however, being completely identical with the types de- 
scribed by Sars. On the other hand, our large specimen resembles 
B. endecacnemos, although itself not departing widely from our other 
specimens. This comes in support of the opinion sometimes ex- 
pressed that B. coronata and B. endecacnemos are only two different 
forms of the same species. Contrary to all expectation, the Bri-: 
singe have been found in the Mediterranean; and there again the 
specimens collected have all the essential characters of B. coronata. 
It is further evident that B. coronata, in passing into the Mediter- 
ranean, has undergone important modifications in its proportions, 
which are more slender, and which might justify the creation of a 
new species, which might be called B. mediterranea. But it is more 
probable that the two species described in the Atlantic and the 
Mediterranean one are all one and the same species. 
On the other hand, another form collected in the Atlantic in 1880, 
and which we shall call B. Hdwardsz, is certainly distinct. The 
arms in this species are covered with imbricated contiguous plates, 
without spines, forming series of arches, the extremities of which 
rest against each adambulacral piece; and these pieces themselves 
are more abbreviated than in the other species, and bear spines with: 
the apex widened. 
The comparison of the species of Hymenodiscus and Brisinga 
leads to important conclusions with regard to the relative morpho- 
logical value of the different parts of the skeleton of the Starfishes. 
In Hymenodiscus, at the age at which we have seen it, all the 
skeleton is reduced to the ambulacral and adambulacral pieces. 
These pieces are therefore the only ones that we can regard as truly 
typical in the Asteriade. In the other species of Brisinga the pieces 
of the dorsal skeleton are superadded, arranged in arches more or 
less separated from each other ; but these arches appear only in the 
inflated region of the arms containing the genital glands. More- 
over, in the Hymenodiscus, while still destitute of genital glands, 
although already of considerable size, this dorsal skeleton of the 
arms is entirely wanting. It is also wanting in the very young 
Bristnge, or is scarcely indicated in them, so long as the genital 
