20 BVIUIA, ITS PEOPLE A\D PRODUCTIOXS. 



Class HOLOTnURIOIBEA. 



Body cylincli-ical or viTiuiform, witli a coriaceous skin, in which granuhir 

 particles are scattered, and iisually wit}! five h)ngitudiual rows of ambulacral suckers. 



There are two orders : Apneumona, which are liermaphrodite, and possess no 

 special organs of respiration ; and Pneicmotiophora, with the sexes distinct and 

 possessing internal arborescent branchiae. 



Order PXEUilOXOPHORA. 



Family Holothuriidae. 



nOLOTHUlUA. 



This genus embraces the soa-cucumbcrs, ' Trepang^ or ' h'-eh de mare,^ as they are 

 called, very repulsiye-looking animals, b>it valuable in an economic point of view, 

 as vast numbers arc collected for export to China, where they are highly esteemed 

 as food. Some species of Ilohthuria attain three feet in length, and they possess the 

 extraordinaiy power of ejecting their own bowels if molested. This strange act, 

 however, does not seem to interfere with the comfort or health of the animal, which 

 in some three months will reproduce a new set. 



Sub-Kingdom IV. VERMES. 



Body generally elongate or vermiform, soft, bilaterally symmetrical. Feet if 

 present never jointed. 



Class PLATYELMINTHA. 



Order TURBELLARIA. 



Non-parasitic and mostly aquatic animals. Some species are ' commensals ' or 

 non-parasitic lodgers in Holothurias or in the respiratory cavities of ascidian tunicaries, 

 claiming shelter only fi'om their hosts, and a few reside in moist earth. 



Family Planariidae. 



The rianarias are found under stones in damp places, and resemble an elongated 

 or vermiform slug with a T-shaped head, but may be discriminated fi'om mollusca 

 by wanting tentacles. Some species occur in Burma. 



Family Amphiporidae. 



To this family belongs the singular Xenwrfes, a marine worm of slender 

 diameter, but some species of which attain 200 feet in length. These predatory 

 worms harbour under stones, and so entangle their labyrinthine folds among the 

 gravel wherein they reside, that it is next to impossible to capture a perfect 

 specimen. 



Order TREMATODA. 



External or internal parasites on mollusca, Crustacea, and various organs and parts 

 of all spiH'ies of Vertehrata. The common and destructive Distuma hcpaticum, or 

 ' Liver fluke ' of the sheep, is an example of a Trcmatode worm. 



Order CESTODA. 



The order of Cestoid worms embraces the most repulsive parasites of man and 

 animals, often endangering health by tlieii' presence, but which yield to no animals 

 perhaps in the curious and chequered career which they undergo during their 

 existence. 



" In the more ty]ncal forms these parasites are composed of a head, •nhieh is the 

 true animal, tlie joints being the hermaphrodite reproductiv(! organs, developed by 

 a process of gemmation from the head. The joints are called ' proglottides,' and are 

 oi-gauically connected by the water-vascular system. There is only one proglottis in 

 Caryophyilceidte, but iu Tctnia solium there are sometimes as many as 800. 



