JAPANESE ASTEROIDEA. 267 



to about twice tlie length, the proportion diminisliing slightly towards the 

 extremity. Their height at the summit of the interbrachial arc is about 

 twice the length, about midway on the ray it is nearly one and a half, and 

 at the extremity subequal. The width of the paxillar area is equal to that 

 of the superomarginal plate at the fifteenth plate from the median inter- 

 radial line ; midway on the ray it is rather greater. The plates are slight- 

 ly, but rather flatly, convex along their median transverse line (i.e., breadth), 

 and are separated by well-defined channels. Their surface is covered with 

 rather large, uniform, tolerably well-spaced, hyaline, hemispherical granules, 

 wliich are abnormally deciduous, and around the margin of the plate is a 

 fringe of small, uniform, papiUiform spinelets, invested with a con- 

 tinuous web-like membrane, directed horizontally in relation to the vertical 

 plane traversing the breadth of the plate ; the fringe thus covers over the 

 fuiTow between the superomarginal plates, and is continuous round the 

 end of the plate abutting on the paxillar area. There are no spines on the 

 superomarginal plates. 



" The infero-marginal plates correspond exactly to the superior series, 

 and their length is the same ; their height in the lateral view is nearly 

 twice their length at the summit of the interbi'achial arc, but diminishes 

 along the ra^', being subequal or even slightly less when midway-. Their 

 breadth on the actinal surface is about twice the length midway along the 

 ray, but is considerably gi-eater in the interbrachial arc, where the border 

 formed by the infero-marginal plates occupies xexj nearly half the space be- 

 tween the mouth-angle and the margin ; on the outer part of the ray the 

 pro]X)rtion of beadth to length diminishes gradually, but the breadth remains 

 preponderant tlu'oughout. The surface of the plates is faintly but flatly 

 convex, emphasized by the rounded bevel at the margin of the well-defined 

 transverse channel between each successive plates. The sm-face of the plates 

 is covered with uniform, well-spaced, hyaline, deciduous, hemispherical 

 granules, similar to, but perhaps slightly smaller than, those on the supero- 

 marginal plates, and the margins are fm'nished with a similarly webbed 

 fringe of small spinelets directed horizontall}' over the transverse channels 

 between the plates, the fringe increasing a little in breadth as it approaches 



