178 Bulletin Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. VII 



of the disk touch or slightly overlap and beneath these buttons 

 form a crowded, rather regularly distributed layer. The typical 

 table consists of a nearly circular to subquadrate smooth disk, per- 

 forated by a central and seven to nine somewhat smaller peri- 

 pheral holes ; the spire is composed of four upright rods and two 

 transverse beams; the rounded summit is beset with numerous 

 teeth. The disks average 0.8 to 1.0 millimeter diameter; the spire 

 is robust, being 0.1 millimeter high and 0.05 millimeter in diam- 

 eter. The buttons are suboval in contour, about 1 millimeter 

 long, smooth, with the wide margins undulate and the narrowed 

 end obtuse. Six irregular subcircular to oval holes perforate the 

 surface in fairly regular arrangement. The papillae have sup- 

 porting rods which are somewhat curved or bowed with the middle 

 area dilated and perforate and the tips or ends sometimes but not 

 always perforated. The dilated middle area of the rod sometimes 

 has two or three short separate branches, occasionally these anas- 

 tomose, enclosing perforations. The calcareous ring has the radial 

 pieces larger and projecting farther forward than do the inter- 

 radial pieces. The latter each bear one short tooth. The madre- 

 poric canal is placed on the right side of the mesentery and is 

 single and free for its whole length in the body cavity. The Polian 

 vesicles are two to four. The Cuvierian organs form a compara- 

 tively large bunch. 



The colour has been described variously by different writers, 

 but the comparatively recent colour plates given by Dr. H. L. 

 Clark, made from living animals at Torres Straits, are undoubt- 

 edly most reliable. These figures show the peristome mottled cream, 

 tan and brown, with the papillae and adjacent areas usually of 

 the darker brown tones. The tentacles are creamy white. The 

 present alcohol-preserved specimens show the verrucae faded 

 creamy-tan, the remainder of the peristome maculated purplish 

 tan. 



References : Fistularia impatiens, Forskal, P., Descript. Anim., 

 Avium, Amphiborum, Piscium, Insectorum, Vermium; que 

 in itinere orientali, 1775, Hauniae, p. 121, pi. 39, fig. B. 



Holothuria impatiesn, Gmelin, J. F., in Linne C, Syst. Nat., 

 ed. XIII, 1788, p. 3142.— Theel, H., Kept. H. M. S. "Chal- 

 lenger" Zool. Holothuroidea, Part II, 1885, vol. XIV, pp. 



