698 
Proceedings of the Eoyal Society 
Pourtalesia jeffreysii, W. Th. St. 8 540 fms. 
Spatangus purpurens, Luke St. 3 53 ,, 
young (?) St. 6 530 ,, 
(broken, possibly not the young) 
Echinocardium flavescens, A. Ag. St. 3 53 ,,; 
,, pennatifidum , Norm. St. 3 53 ,, 
witli young specimens of tlie species. 
Asteroidea dredged during the Cruise of the “ Knight Errant ” in 
July and August 1880. By W. Percy Sladen, F.L.S., F.G.S. 
The collection that forms the subject of the present report, although 
small numerically, is interesting in many respects. As might 
naturally be expected, the general facies of the whole is decidedly 
northern ; and with the exception of two of the forms all have been 
previously recognised under similar conditions of habitat and associa- 
tion. Owing to the limited number of stations and the small number 
of starfishes obtained at each, I do not in the present instance feel 
justified in drawing from the study of this group of animals alone 
any definite generalisations upon the physical and faunatic conditions 
of the area surveyed. Of the five stations herein concerned, one is 
situated in the shallow water within the hundred fathom line, and 
all the forms there dredged are characteristic boreal and North British 
species ; two stations occur in the “ cold ” area near to stations 
previously dredged by the “ Porcupine,” — one being probably close 
to the most western extension of the area. The remaining two 
stations are in the “ warm ” area and near to the ridge that separates 
it from the cold area. One of the warm-area stations has furnished 
a very remarkable starfish, which constitutes the type of a new genus, 
— altogether distinct from any of its northern congeners ; whilst from 
the second of these stations a recognised boreal species was dredged, 
which has not previously been found out of the cold area. 
With the exception of the new form, each of the species enumerated 
has been previously taken in the cold area. Upon this fact, however, 
too much importance should not be placed. As our knowledge of 
the distribution and adaptability of starfish life increases, there seems 
much danger of confusing cold-area forms (previously so called) with 
frigid abyssal forms of far distant localities, which certainly cannot 
