JAPANESE ASTEROroEA. 



203 



armature of the inferior marginals, but on the abactinal side it 

 is more Hke P. trlacanthus in the spiny character of the supero- 

 marginal armature, although the paxillae are more like those of 

 P. misakiensis. The large spines are, however, much stouter than 

 those of the latter species, and they are also not or hardly 

 flattened. I have only dried specimens, and judging from their 

 appearances, there must have been a great deal of slimy matter 

 on the surface of the body when fresh. The smaller spines, but 

 especially those of the adambulacral plates, are agglutinated 

 together by a gelatinous substance, which forms in the dried 

 specimens a distinct web-like membrane between the spines of 

 the adjacent adambulacrals. The specimens measured as follows : 



Superomarginals. — The superomarginals bear a transverse 

 series of three or four, or rarely five large spines (PL I, fig 9). 

 When there are only three, either the outermost two are con- 

 spicuously large, or the outermost one only is so and the other 

 two much smaller. When there are four or five, the outermost 

 two are conspicuously large and the rest much smaller. These 

 spines are stout, pointed and conical, and the largest one may 

 be as long as 9 mm. The two superomarginals on either side of 

 the interradial line usually carry only one spine near the abactinal 

 end forming the same series with the innermost spine of the 



