Size, Locality, and Colour.—The largest specimen we have examined measures
80 millims. in its greatest diameter, and 5*5 millims. across the disk. I t was collected
by Gapt. Feilden in Discovery Bay (lat. 81° 41' N .); depth 25 fathoms, hard bottom.
Another example was dredged off Cape Frazer (lat. 79° 44/ N.), in 80 fathoms depth,
which measures only 10 millims. in diameter, and is evidently a young specimen. The
former of these Starfishes is dry, and in that state is of a dirty yellow or grey colour;
the smaller one has been preserved in spirit, and is of a fawn-colour or light-brown
shade.
Remarks.—The present species is undoubtedly a near relative of Sars’s typical form,
P. typicus, but clearly differs from it in general size, proportions, and habitus, as well as
in the form of the pedicellariae and spinelets. P. palceocrystallus is of larger size, and
the length of the arm-radius, in proportion to that of the disk (about 5:1), is less than
in P. typicus, in the largest examples of which it is 6^ or 6:1. The contour of the
arms is also different in our form, being more tumid on the inner third, and much more
attenuated on the remaining outward portion of the ray. The dorsal spinelets are
decidedly radio-laminate and somewhat expanded at the tip, instead of being conical,
as described in P. typicus, and the shaft of the ambulacral spinelet is also denticulate or
serrate. The pedicellariae in the present species are even of relatively larger size, and
differ in having the contour of the jaws considerably swollen out about the outer third,
and then tapering rapidly towards the extremity, which is somewhat truncate. Indeed
the general facies of the appendage is unmistakably distinct from that of the more
southern form. (Compare PI. II, Fig. 26, with figure given by Sars, l. c. pi. ix.
figs. 15-17.)
Description o f the Illustrations o f this Species on Plate II.
Fig. 22. Abactinal aspect of the animal: natural size.
23. Actinal aspect of the same specimen: natural size.
24. Portion near the middle of a ray, actinal aspect: magnified.
25. Portion near the middle of a ray, abactinal aspect: magnified.
26. One of the pedicellariae: magnified.
Crossaster pa p po su s (LincJc), Muller & Troschel. Plate III, Figs. 1-4.
1733. TrisJcaideeaetis papposa, Linck, De Stellis marinis, p. 43, tab. xxxii. no. 52, tab. xxxiv. no. 54.
1733. Dodecactis reticulata in dorso, id. 1. c. p. 41, tab. xvii. no. 28.
1777. Asterias helianthemoides, Pennant, British Zoology, vol. iv. p. 66. no. 72.
1780. Asterias papposa, Fabricius, Fauna Grcenlandiea, p. 369, no. 364.
1783. Asterias papposa, Betzius, K. Vet.-Akad. Handl. Stockholm, vol. iv. p. 230. no. 4.
1788. Asterias papposa, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. Linn. ed. xiii. p. 3160.
1816. Asterias papposa, Lamarck, Anim. s. Yert. ed. 1, vol. ii. p. 559. no. 22.
1821. Asterias papposa, Sabine, Parry’s Joum. of a Yoyage for the Discovery of a N.W. Passage &c., in
. 1819-20, Append, p. ccxxii.
1828. Asterias papposa, Boss, Parry’s Narrative of Attempt to reach the North Pole in 1827, p. 202.
1828. Asterias papposa, Fleming, Hist. British Animals, p.487.
1834. Asterias (Solasterias) papposa, Blainville, Manuel d’Actinologie, p. 241.
1834. Asterias affinis, Brandt, Act. Acad. St. Pétersb. 1834, p. 271, e t Prodr. Descr. anim. ab Mertensio
obs., fasc. i. pr 71.
1834. ? Asterias alboverrucosa, id. ibid.
1835. Stellonia papposa, Agassiz, Prodr. Monog. Bad., Mém. Soc. Sei, Nat. Neufchâtel, t. i, p. 192,
1836. Asterias papposa, Johnston, Loudon’s Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. ix . p. 474, fig. 69.
1839. Solaster papposa, Forbes, Ast. Irish Sea, Mem. Wern. Soc. vol. viii. p. 121.
1840. Solaster (Pol/yaster) papposa, Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. vol. vi. p. 183.
1840. Crossaster papposus, Müller & Troschel, Wiegmann’s Archiv, iv. pt. 1, p. 183.
1841. Solaster papposa, Forbes, Hist. British Starfishes, p. 112.
1842. Solaster papposus, Müller & Troschel, System der Astèriden, p. 26.
1852. Solaster papposa, Forbes, Sutherland’s Joum. of a Yoyage, vol. ii. Append, p. ccxi,
1853. Solaster papposus, Stimpson, Invert. Grand Manan, p. 15.
1857. Solaster papposus, Lütken, Yid. Meddel. N . Forening i Kjöbenhavn, 1857, p. 40.
1862. Solaster papposus, Dujardin & Hupé, Hist. Nat. des Zooph. Échinodermes, p. 353.
1865. Solaster papposus, Norman, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist, ser, 3, vol. xv. p. 122.
1866. Solaster (Polyaster) papposus, Gray, Synop. Spec. Starf. Brit. Mus. p. 5.
1866. Crossaster papposus, Yerrill, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. x . p. 345.
; 1871. Solaster papposus, Hodge, Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumb. & Durham, vol. iv. p. 134.
r ; 1875. Solaster papposus, Perrier, Stellendes du Muséum, p. 94 ; Arch, de Zool. exp. et gén. vol. iv. p. 358.
1877. Crossaster papposus, A. Agassiz, North-American Starfishes, pp. 98,112.
1878. Solaster papposus, Yiguier, Squelette .des Stellérides, Arch, de Zool. exp. et gén. vol. vii. p. 134.
A Starfish of depressed habit, having 10-15 rays, which are shorter than, or only
equal to, the diameter of the disk, and taper uniformly to the extremities. The calcareous
network of the abactinal surface is very widely spaced, and composed of a great
number of small ossicles that overlap or imbricate upon one another ; the intermediate
meshes are consequently large, and the membranous skin which covers them frequently
bears in the centre one or more isolated ossicles, round which the papulæ are grouped,
not unfrequently 20-80 in number. Paxillæ, composed of a brush-like group of fine
spinelets articulated on a rounded pedicle, are situated at each of the intersections, one
being also occasionally present upon the line of plates that lies between, as well as
upon, the isolated ossicles ; their length is about equal to their distance apart, and in
an adult specimen 20-30 spinelets occur in each fasciculus. The paxillæ stand moderately
well spaced in consequence of the open character of the network, and, although
there is no regularity whatever apparent in their arrangement upon the disk, a certain
lineal disposition can be more or less clearly traced Upon the rays. 10-12 paxillæ
may be counted in a line drawn from the centre of the disk to an arm-angle, 15-20
from the tip of a ray to the base, and not more than 4 or 5 in an oblique row running
from the median line of a ray up to the series of large marginal paxillæ. These lateral
paxillæ, of which there is only a single series, are large and compressed, being two or
three times the breadth of the dorsal paxillæ ; they are widely spaced and placed obliquely,
or even at right angles, to the median line, their direction being outwards and at an
angle somewhat greater than 45° to the contour of the ray ; midway between each
of the large paxillæ is a small secondary paxilla, less than those of the dorsal surface.
There are about 16 to 17 lateral paxillæ from the tip of the ray to the arm-angle.
Each adambulacral plate bears two series of spines: one upon the inner side,