232 pentactjE. 



ever, the former were seen in the usual position and of the 

 usual form, but not so much branched as the respiratory 

 trees in other Sea-Cucumbers. There was but one sac 

 attached to the oesophagus. The teeth or dental plates 

 were short, and formed as in the last described. The in- 

 testine enlarged into a gizzard-like globose stomach just 

 below the mouth, and was not so complicated in its 

 rolled-up length and numerous twists, as in the Cucumaria. 

 The interior of the muscular coat was much smoother, and 

 the muscles apparently weaker. 



The specimens alluded to above were dredged adhering 

 to muscles. Mr. Goodsir has since found many of them, 

 brought up on fishermen's lines off the Fife coast and in 

 the German Ocean. It has been added to the Fauna of 

 Ireland, by my friend Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast, who 

 obtained it on the north-east coast. 



Sir John G. Dalyell, who has also found this species, 

 observes regarding it and other Holothuriadae that when 

 in confinement the tentacula are usually expanded towards 

 night. " When evening comes, 11 he says, " a tuft pro- 

 truding from the larger extremity unfolds into a capacious 

 funnel, composed of eight, or ten, or twenty beautiful 

 branches implanted on a shelly cylinder, in the centre of 

 which is the mouth. Each branch now begins to sweep 

 the water in succession, and descends almost to the root 

 within the mouth in a contracted state, whence it arises to 

 enlarge anew. These evolutions are protracted until the 

 latest hour ; but as morning dawns the whole apparatus is 

 withdrawn, the skin becomes close and compact as before, 

 and a fountain begins to play from the opposite extremity. 11 

 (See Athenaeum, No. 675.) 



