234 BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



witli one furrow ami one actinal spine and, usually, also a broad fairly high serrate 

 pedicellaria. Abactinal pedicelhiriiB with quadrate rounded serrate jaws, usually 

 wider at tip than base and either wider than high, or the reverse; actmal pedicel- 

 laria with a broad base, tapering abruptly to a narrow, more or less truncate, 

 incurved, serrate margin; jaws usually liigher than wide. All granules denticulate, 

 or more or less rugose, as if covered with minute unequal points and confluent 

 knobs. R= about 2r. Type, R=73 mm.; r = 35 mm.; breadth of ray at base, 

 40 mm. Another specimen: 11 = 100 mm.; r = 55 mm.; breadth of ray at base 

 64 mm. 



Description. — Abactuial surface beset with numerous rigid, upright, tapering, 

 sharp, or bluntly jjointed spines, which are variable in length and number, but are 

 usually about as long as in spinosa" (.3.5 to 5 mm.). These spines, which are 

 borne on a boss or convexity of the primary abactinal plates, are nearly twice as 

 numerous in some specimens as in the tyjDC. There is a median radial series of 

 about twelve to over twenty spines, and on either side of these two to five very 

 irregvilar longitudinal series of shorter sjjines. In the especially spiny mdividuals 

 some of the secondary plates have short spuaules. On a few small specimens the 

 spines are all very short. Abactmal pedicellariae numerous, usuallj^ found on the 

 secondary plates, of divers sizes, according to size of plate, typically with broadly 

 spatulate denticulate jaws, wliich, howeA^er, are quite variable in shape. The jaws 

 may be nearly scjuare, or liigher than wide, rarely wider than liigh, strongly curved 

 to truncate at the biting edge. The teeth are also very variable in length. In 

 tlie type they are conspicuous and slender, but in a specimen from station 4530 

 (otherwise also not typical) the edges of the jaw are smooth (the actinal pedicel- 

 larise are toothed, however). The spaced granules, wliich border all the slightly 

 raised plates, instead of being smooth, as in phrygiana and spinosa, are beset with 

 tiny prominences, giving them a conspicuously rugose or denticulate appearance; 

 in extreme cases multifid. The membrane investmg the surface of body is thinner 

 than m spinosa, so that even before the specimen is dried the irregularities of the 

 granules are easily detected. 



Abactinal skeleton more open than in spinosa. The primary plates are 

 roundish or slightly lobed and well separated. The much more numerous, irregu- 

 larly disposed, trilobed, roundish, oblong, and very unequal secondary plates form 

 a network between the primary plates by toucliing or overlapping each other. In 

 those specimens with especially weak marginals the abactuial surface is also tlunner 

 and weaker. This is caused by the fact that the larger secondary plates are only 

 loosely joined, leaving comparatively wide meshes, ui wliich are A^ery small mde- 

 pondcnt (that is, separate) grain-like ossicles or rudimentary plates. Papulae 

 numerous, often conspicuous, emerging between the plates singly — that is, a papula 

 is usually separated from its neighbor by an ossicle, sometimes very small. In 

 large specimens the papulae extend all over the abactinal siu'face; m smaller speci- 

 mens there is a small interradial area near margm free from them. 



Marginal plates small anil rather thin, irregularly oval or elliptical, longer than 

 high, except at end of ray, where the two dimensions are nearly equal. Supero- 



" In the original description this species was referred to as phrygiana; of course phrygiana, having 

 short spines or tubercles, is not at all similar to califomica. 



