245 



Two specimens only have yet come under my observation, 

 the one already mentioned, and another in the possession of 

 Mr. Stimpson, which was also obtained at Eastport by Mr. Wil- 

 liam Bridges. The larger is about five inches in length, with a 

 breadth of three fourths of an inch. 



The suckers are numerous, without order. They are destitute 

 of calcareous support except the terminal, transverse, cribriform 

 plate. The neck, for about half an inch behind the base of the 

 tentacles, is nearly naked. A ^qw suckers, however, are found 

 on it, larger than those on the other parts of the body, without 

 the terminal plate, but having their sides crowded with very 

 irregular, perforated laminee. The integuments here, also, un- 

 like those of the other parts of the body, contain an abundant 

 calcareous deposit, similar to that of the adjoining suckers, 

 though the plates are smaller. 



The tentacula are of very unequal development ; two large, 

 ramose, then two very small (scarcely exceeding one tenth of an 

 inch,) two again large, &c. thus making ten pairs, an arrange- 

 ment somewhat similar to that of Orcula Trosch. They have a 

 few calcareous deposits, like those in the integuments of the 

 neck. 



The oral circle contains ten pieces, five of the shark-tooth 

 form, the alternating five, to which the retractor muscles are 

 attached, widely bifid. 



The intestinal canal is between four and five times the length 

 of the animal. 



The genital tubes are gathered in one mass, at about half the 

 length of the body backward. They are attached, not to the 

 intestine, as usual in such forms, but to the inner wall of the 

 body ; along this and connected with the transverse muscles as 

 it passes, the duct extends forward and opens near the base of 

 the tentacula. 



The pyriform sac is slender, nearly an inch and a half long. 

 In color this species is of a pale yellow, the neck and tentacles 

 being purplish. 



Duasmodactyla has no similarity to Holothuria, Bohadschia, 

 &c. which it resembles only in the number of tentacula, but is 

 on the contrary closely allied to Thyonidium. It furnishes the 

 only instance as yet of any species with twenty tentacula occur- 

 ring on our northern coast. 



