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Show 1881.] THE SURVEY OF H.M.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 ' Expedition 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) a; 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 strengthened3-so far, that is, as forms with free-swimming 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 Kerguelen4, cannot stand for it, as it was used by Captain F. W . Hutton five years earlier for a quinque-radiate form from New Zealand5 {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, however, 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 Antarctic 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 separate disk of its own. These disks are completely free from granules ; but each disk is frequently separated 1 During the Hassler Expedition specimens were taken at lat. 37° 42' S., long. 56° 20' W . 2 The specimens from these localities were determined by Prof. Alex. Agassiz. 3 Archiv fur Naturg. xlv. p. 140. Some time after writing the above I found that Oapt. F. W . Hutton had (Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. p. 362) stated his belief that his E. albocinctus is the same as E. magellanicus. With this opinion of Capt. Hutton's I am not, as at present advised, disposed to disagree; but it may be pointed out that we not only find in this species an interesting example of geographical range, but are also able from it to point the moral of the value of geographical terms as specific titles. * Monatsber. Akad. Berl. 1877, p. 457- 6 P. Z. S. 1872, p. 812. |