7 
TAB. LXIII. 
ASTERIAS equestris? 
Spec. Char. Rays 5. Disk covered with tubercles. 
Margin with oval plates, each with three to six 
tubercles on each. Tentacula rather clavate. 
Syn. Gmel. 3164. Linck’s Stella Marina , t. 12 . 
n. 21. t. 26. n. 42. t. 33. n. .53. 
In February 1806 I had the pleasure of receiving this 
superb Asterias from my kind friend and patron, James 
Brodie, Esq., M. P. and F. L. S., which was found on the 
coast near Brodie House. It is certainly one of the hand- 
somest of the genus, and is now first known as a British 
species. The specimen was about the size of the represen- 
tation, an inch thick in the middle, rising somewhat 
cushion-like. The longest spines are rather blunt, and 
about twice their thickness in length, which is about one- 
eighth of an inch. These are dispersed on plates sur- 
rounded by little stud-like prominencies, that when fresh 
have a beautiful pearly lustre : see the left hand lower figure. 
The plates on the side are ovate, and have often three or more 
spines on them. There are a few scattered fo'rceps-like 
spines on the upper side, and many on the under side : see 
the left hand bottom figure. The feelers are flattish and 
somewhat clavate. The other figure is the little shield-like 
tube cle, generally on the back of this sort of animals. 
The synonyms of Gmelin, which here refer to Linck s 
figurrs above quoted, are right, and belong to the species 
here figured, but the others to a very different species. 
