1881.] THE SURVEY OF HM.S. * ALERT.' 91 



(4) 36° 47' S., 55° 17' W. This is, I believe, the first recorded 

 notice of the presence of E. magellanicus in any other region than 

 the Straits of Magellan ' ; but the officers of the ' Challenger ' Expe- 

 dition dredged specimens from the Marion Islands and Prince 

 Edward's Island, as well as at Station 147 (between Marion Islands 

 and the Crozets) and Station 315 (north of the Falkland Islands)^; 

 and the views of Studer as to the connexion in earlier periods of the 

 world's history between such points as the southern portion of South 

 America, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the Crozets are 

 thereby strengthened^ — so far, that is, as forms with free-swim- 

 ming embryos can offer any evidence at all on the point. 



(5) Some very small specimens, which are, I believe, the young 

 of this species, were obtained at Elizabeth Island. 



ASTEROIDEA. 



ASTERIAS. 



The species of this genus which have come in this collection 

 afford no exception to the rule that in it the process of determining 

 the species is accompanied with very considerable difficulty. 



An opportunity may, perhaps, be now taken to point out that the 

 specific name mollis, applied by Studer to the new sexradiate form 

 which he found on the west of Kerguelen^, cannot stand for it, as it 

 was used by Captain F. W. Hutton five years earlier for a quinque- 

 radiate form from New Zealand^ {bien entendu that the difference in 

 the number of the rays is not the only one). I would suggest that 

 the name studeri should replace mollis for the more lately described 

 species. 



AsTERiAS BRANDTi, n. sp. (Plate IX. fig. 1.) 



A single specimen of this species is, unfortunately, considerably 

 injured ; of the two arms which have been broken off from the 

 disk, part of one has alone been preserved. Enough remains, how- 

 ever, to enable us to demonstrate a very remarkable similarity and a 

 very remarkable difference between this new species and the A. meri- 

 dionalis of Perrier. In this latter, which was collected by the Ant- 

 arctic Expedition and has since been obtained from Kerguelen, the 

 greater part of the creature is covered by short delicate spines, each 

 of which is placed on a se[)arate disk of its own. These disks are 

 completely free from granules ; but each disk is frequently separated 



' During the Hassler Expedition specimens were taken at lat. 37^ 42' S 

 long. 5(i° 20' W. 



^ Tlie specimens from these localities were determined by Prof. Alex. Agassiz. 



^ Archiv liir Naturg. slv. p. 140. Some time after writing the above I 

 found that Capt. F. W. Huttuu had (Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. p. 3G2) stated his 

 belief that his E. albocincius is the same as E. magellanicus. VVith this opinion 

 of Capt. Hutton's I am not, as at present advised, disposed to disagree ; but it 

 may be pointed out that vfe not only find in this species an interesting example 

 of geogrnphical range, but are also able from it to point the moral of the 

 value of geographical terms as specific titles. 



* Mouatsber. Akad. Berl. 1877, p. 467. 



' P. Z. S. 1872, p. 812. 



