JAPANESE ASTEROIDEA. 223 



spines stand at an angle to the superficies of the plate and are directed 

 upward and outward. Veiy short, widely spaced, papilliform squamules are 

 distributed over the whole of the infero-marginal plates, and the granulation 

 of the supero-marginal series partakes of the same character and is indis- 

 tinguishable at the Junction of the plates. 



" The ambulacral spines are short and robust, subpapilliform, and do not 

 taj^er, and they stand more or less perpendicular to the sm'face of the plate. 

 The inner series are 4 or 5 in number, and their base-line forms a slight 

 angle projecting into the fmTOW ; the middle spinelets are a shade larger and 

 more robust than the others. The ambulacral spinelets that occupy the rest 

 of the plate beliind the furrow-series are Kttle more than elongate papillae ; 

 they are small, stiunpy, covered with membrane, and are rather widely 

 spaced, no definite arrangement being discernible, although about two irregular 

 rows may be traced in some instances. The spinelets on the ventral plates 

 are similar in character and disposition to the foregoing, and they merge 

 imperceptibly into the squamules of the infero-marginal plates. This uni- 

 formity in the dermal appendages imparts a characteristic appearance to the 

 venti-al aspect of the starfish. 



" Mouth-plates elongate, each with two short, flattened, truncate spinelets 

 at the inner extremity, then about six pairs of spinelets, short and robust, 

 standing perpendicular on the sm-face of the plate and forming two series 

 apposed to one another ; and then about fom' rather broader, shorter, and 

 more robust spinelets, forming a single series in continuation as it were of 

 the two apposed series, at the outer extremity of the plate, towards wliich 

 the spinelets decrease as they proceed outwards. Consequent on this method 

 of arrangement there is a marked division of the mouth-plate armatm-e into 

 two narrow series along the median line of each mouth-angle. 



"The paxillfe of the dorsal area are small and compact, and composed 

 of six to nine spinelets, of wliich one is central. The spinelets are short 

 and robust, and are directed upward, their radiation apart being very shght. 

 No definite order is maintained in the arrangement of the paxillas. The 

 papulae are small and dark brown, or almost black in colom-, and a broad 

 space occm's along the median line of the ray in which none are present. 



