109 
genital slits are vertical, as also I find them in specimens which 
I have collected myself in the Japanese seas. — In any case, it 
seems to me that the present species must be referred to the genus 
Astroceras, if it is not made the type of a separate genus, which 
latter course I would not think desirable at the present State of 
our knowledge. 
7. Astroschema sp. 
On a piece of a Gorgonid from olf Three Kings Isl., 60 fms., 
collected by Captain Bolions, I found two small specimens, 1 — 
1,5 mm diameter of disk, which, evidently, belong to a species of 
Astroschema. It is hardly possible to identify the species — very 
probably they belong to some undescribed species. In any case 
these young specimens are interesting as they prove that also a 
species Astroschema proper occurs in the sea here off the North 
end of New Zealand. In the younger of the two specimens the 
6 primary plates and the radial shields are still distinet, not yet 
obscured by the covering of the grains. In the larger specimen 
only the central plate is still discernible. The genital slits have 
already made their appearance, even in the smaller specimen. 
8. Gorgonocephalus chilensis (Phil.), var. novæ=zelandiæ n. var. 
PI. IV. Fig. 1. 
Cook Strait, 100 fms. 1 specimen, collected by Mr. Hazel- 
wood, 1921. 
I do not see any characters by which this specimen, which 
measures 50 mm diameter of disk, could be distinguished from G. 
chilensis (Phil.). Only the short stumps of the disk are sparser than 
appears to be the rule in chilensis, and for this reason I think it 
correct, at least for the present, to regard the New Zealand form 
as a separate variety of this species. If it should be ultimately 
shown,* when more material is at hånd, that the disk covering 
varies so as to be sometimes doser and more like what is usual 
in chilensis, I should not hesitate in simply uniting them. As the 
species is known to be distributed l^rom South America to Kerguelen 
and Heard Island, it would not be very surprising if it turned out 
to oceur also in the New Zealand seas. 
