214 PENTACT.E. 



pository for all animals which cannot easily be referred to 

 any other more definitely characterised, no matter how 

 unlike they may be to each other. By this means the local 

 fannist and florist ease their consciences when puzzled, and 

 the compilers of systems of nature, when synonyms crowd 

 too thickly upon them. Among the Holothuriada the Holo- 

 tlvuria pentactes has hitherto had the dubious notoriety of 

 being scapegoat general and refuge for the destitute. 



Unfortunately, in Midler's Zoologia Danica, three dis- 

 tinct species have been figured under the name of pentactes; 

 one of these, however, is so evidently the pentactes of the 

 Prodromus Zoologise Danica?, the Hydra corallifera figured 

 by Gaertner, and usually referred to as pentactes, though 

 by Blainville made distinct under the name of H. Gaertneri, 

 and the pentactes figured by Pennant ; and, moreover, is 

 the only one which agrees with the original character, 

 " H. tentaculis denis ; corpore quinquefariam verrucosa," 

 (alluding to the strong wart-like suckers,) that I have no 

 hesitation in confining the name to the species which I 

 have here figured. The Holothuria pentactes of the Faune 

 Franchise is also evidently the same animal, at least the 

 body is, for the tentacula seem to have been drawn from 

 the imagination of the painter, following out his view of 

 the term " pinnate," which has been carelessly applied 

 to them. 



The Cucumaria pentactes is of a long cylindrical form, 

 very angular, having double rows of strong warty suckers 

 placed alternately on the five angles. The skin is very 

 coriaceous and quite smooth. The tentacula ten, large, 

 more or less plumose or dendriform and pedunculate. It 

 measures from two to four inches in length. Internally 

 we find largely developed respiratory trees, moderately 

 numerous genital tubes, two oesophageal sacs, the one large 



