Miscellaneous. 318 



E. P., and Brisingaster, de Loriol, have come to be added to this 

 family, and to show that the diverse forms which it includes were 

 of great interest in connexion with the morphology of the dorsal 

 skeleton of the Stellerida. In fact I have made known one genus, 

 the genus Hymenodiscus, in which this skeleton is wanting on the 

 arms, which possess only the ambulacral and adambulacral pieces. 

 To these pieces are added, in Brisinga, arcs of calcareous pieces 

 supported by their extremities upon the adambulacral pieces, and 

 which occur only in the region of the anus, which contains the 

 generative apparatus. These arcs are still very little developed 

 in Brisinga meditenxmea, E. P. There exists only a single one for 

 two pairs of adambulacral pieces in B. endecacnemos and coronata ; 

 there is one for each pair of adambulacral pieces in B. Edwardsii, 

 E. P. Lastly in Lahidiaster and Brisingaster there are added to 

 these transverse arcs some longitudinal pieces which complete a 

 calcareous network, closely resembling that which forms the dorsal 

 skeleton of the SteUerida of the genus Asterias. Notwithstanding 

 this, by the constitution of their disc and the number of their arms, 

 the typical Brisingidae remained separated from the Asteriadse on the 

 one hand, and from the Pedicellasteres, their nearest relatives, on 

 the other. The new Brisingidae collected by the ' Talisman ' serve 

 to fill up this gap, and at the same to extend the idea that we must 

 form of the actual type of the Brisingce. These Brisingidae belong 

 to six forms, which we propose to name Brisinga robusta, B. semi- 

 coronata, B. elegans, Freyella sjnnulosa, F. seooradiata, and Ooronaster 

 Parfaiti. It is to be remarked that the form B. coronata, collected 

 in abundance by the 'Travailleur ' in the Bay of Biscay, proved to be 

 comparatively rare after passing the latitude of Morocco, and was 

 replaced by the new forms which have just been named. 



Brisinga robusta is in a manner only an exaggeration of B. 

 coronata. It possesses seventeen arms, much swelled in the 

 neighbourhood of their base, and each attaining a length of more 

 than two decimetres. Through its very thick integuments we 

 cannot distinguish the prominent calcareous arcs, furnished with 

 long spines, which are so distinct in B. cot^onata ; but the disc and 

 the bases of the arms are none the less bristling with very numerous 

 and very strong spines. This form was captured oflf the Sahara, at 

 depths of from 882 to 1435 metres. Brisinga semi-coronata, from 

 the same regions, has likewise from fifteen to seventeen arms ; but 

 its arms are more slender, its disc is furnished with comparatively 

 small spines, and the spines of the arms, which are less numerous 

 and rather short, instead of being isolated on each side as in B. 

 coronata, are arranged in a transverse comb on each side. Brisinga 

 elegans is distinguished by its very characteristic flattened form, its 

 broad and not very prominent disc all of a piece with the arms, 

 which are slender, comparatively short, and furnished as usual with 

 transverse calcareous arches, but very scantily spinous. The 

 number of arms is nineteen ; the colour rose-red. Fifteen individuals 

 were dredged off the Pilones at a depth of 1435 metres. The three 

 forms just characterized are true Brisingce. 



It is advisable, on the other hand, to create a genus Freyella 



