JAPANESE ASTEROIDEA. 269 



if these were considered as the fingers of an outstretched hand. It is 

 directed at a slight angle to the vertical outwards (sometimes inwards on 

 the outer part of the ray), and towards the extremity. 



" The mouth-plates are small and elongate, the outUne of the united 

 j)air being fusiform, and their sm-face is not convex or prominent actinall}'. 

 Their armature consists of a marginal series of five or six small spinelets, 

 which extend from the inner extremity to the junction with the adambula- 

 cral plate. Close within this series is a second wliich quite masks them, 

 consisting of a Hneal series of eleven or twelve short, robust, subconical 

 and pointed spinelets, which extend from one extremity of the plate to the 

 other, decreasing slightly in length, but less in robustness, as they recede 

 from the mouth. 



" The actinal interradial areas, wliich are comparatively small and 

 triangular, are occupied b}' a few very large, regular,' intermediate plates, 

 arranged in definite order, mosaic-Uke and not imbricating. The first or 

 innermost plate on each side of the median inteiTadial line is considerably 

 larger than the mouth-plates, and the pair together have an hexagonal 

 outline ; they occupy fully two-tliirds of the distance between the mouth- 

 plates and the marginal plates, and are separated by a median sutm*e cor- 

 responding to the median interradial line. The space intervening between 

 this pair and the marginal plates is occupied by a single odd oblong plate 

 standing in the median inteiTadial line. The other plates extend the whole 

 way from the adambulacral to the marginal plates, and vary in shape 

 according to their position. The number also varies from three to five in 

 each half area, and may vary even in two halves of one and the same 

 area. The second plate counting from witliin is in all cases the largest 

 plate in the area. The surface of these plates is covered with small, 

 hemispherical, deciduous gi-anules, similar to those on the marginal plates, 

 and round the margin of each plate is a fringe of small spinelets united 

 by a membranous web, similar to that described on the marginal j)lates, 

 which is directed horizontally over a channel running between the plates. 



" I have been imable to detect the slightest trace of an anal aperture ; 

 indeed from the small and compact character of the paxillse in the centre 



