74 PROF. F. J. BELL ON THE [Feb. 19, 



ordinarily developed between the successive sets of spines. The 

 ventral plates are thickly covered with granules irregular in, but 

 often remarkable for, their size ; moderately-sized valvular pedicel- 

 larise will be found pretty numerously scattered among them. Large 

 granules and pedicellariae are developed on the inferomarginal plates ; 

 the granules on the superomarginals are not quite as coarse, and pedi- 

 cellariae there appear to be wanting. 



The poriferous arese on the dorsal surface are very abundant and 

 of large size ; the ossicles are elongated and narrow, and are set at 

 right angles to the long axis of the arm. The well-developed lophial 

 ossicles are frequently blunt at their tips, and then appear to be 

 covered with granules ; when the tips are sharp they are bare of 

 granules ; the apical spines are very prominent, the contained area 

 free of spines, the arms surrounded by a well-marked granulation ; 

 valvular pedicellariae are to be here and there detected on the dorsal 

 surface. The madreporic plate is of an irregular shape. 



Colour (dry) brownish or light grey, the lophial spines rather 

 darker than the rest. 



Measurements: — R=100, 104; r=37-5, 38; greatest breadth 

 of arm 31, 33. 



Hub. New Caledonia. 



Oreaster reinhardti. 



Oreaster reinhardti, Liitken, Vid. Med. 1864, p. 159. 



" O. reinhardti differt ub O. linckii brachiis crassioribus, spinis 

 dorsi paucioribus et minoribus, areis poriferis superioribus haud 

 conjiuentibus , in seriebus duabus alternantibus vero disj)Ositis, 

 papillis ambulacralibus internis 4-5 (non 6-7) minus gracilibus, 

 pedicellariis interpositis hisce minoribus (non Mas superantibus)." 



Nicobar Islands. 



Oreaster productus. 



R=4 r to 4*6 r ; disk flat, lophial spines not strongly developed ; 

 spinous tubercle on both supero- and inferomarginal plates ; on 

 the latter there may be two or three on each ; spines also developed 

 on the ventral plates. The arms long, not wide at their base, 

 tapering somewhat rapidly ; superomarginals about 35, inferomar- 

 ginals one or two less, groove of division obscure, angles between the 

 plates with, at the angles of the arms, a few (less than ten) pores ; 

 these diminish in number at the sides, and disappear towards the 

 ends of the arms. Even in a specimen where 11=150 mm. we find 

 that the superomarginals may be without any spinous tubercles ; 

 these, when they are developed, are not large, nor are they regularly 

 set on all the plates ; the inferomarginals, at the angles of the arms, 

 may be armed with five or six small spines, one of which is often 

 more prominent than the rest ; as they pass outwards the spines 

 diminish in number, though they may increase in size ; on the distal 

 half of the arm there is only one spine on a plate. 



Adambulacral spinulation diplacanthid ; spines of inner row eight 

 to ten, the median the longest, all very delicate ; spines of outer row 



