JAPANESE ASTEEOIDEA. 199 



Paxillce. — The paxillae are small and closely set, and the 

 coronal spinelets are also finer than in most other species of the 

 genus here described, so that the aboral surface looks more 

 smooth. The largest paxillae are, as usual, found at about the 

 middle of the base of the arms, and there is usually a conspicuous- 

 ly large one on the inner side of the madreporite. The distinc- 

 tion between the peripherals and the centrals of the coronal 

 spinelets is less sharp than in most other species, the centrals 

 being only shorter and more rounded (PI. Ill, fig. 60). It 

 also happens very commonly that one or more of the centrals 

 are conspicuously larger than others and almost spherical, and 

 in such cases it looks as if there were one or more large 

 centrals and numerous peripherals ; but such a description 

 would be totally incorrect. It also happens in some specimens 

 that the single granule near or at the centre of the crown 

 is not only conspicuously larger, but is produced into a spine. 

 This I have found to be the case near the apex of the 

 arms in a few of my larger examples ; but the same condi- 

 tion is especially striking in several of the smaller examples from 

 the Japan Sea, in which there is a row of such spines along the 

 mesial line of the arms through nearly their whole length (PI. 

 Ill, fig. 54). This feature was, at first glance, so conspicuous 

 that I provisionally made a new species ; but further studies have 

 left no doubt that it is either a local or individual variation. In 

 one of the larger paxiUae there are some thirty coronal spinelets. 

 The area of small paxillse at the centre of the disk is large and 

 conspicuous. 



Madreporite. — The madreporite is large and well exposed, and 

 is close to the margin. It is usually of a rounded kidney 



