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nigricans Brandt. In 1867, Selenka's well known monograph on 

 Holothurians appeared, in which he gives 14 species from the Pacific 

 coast, north of Mexico. He includes all of the species given by pre- 

 vious writers except Pentacta populifer and piperata Stimpson (which 

 he mentions in an "Addendum") and he adds 2 new species. Cucumaria 

 quinquesemita and Synapta albicans, both from the coast of California. 

 He also describes and gives a figure of one of the calcareous plates of a 

 Cucumaria which he refers to Brandt's albicla. Ludwig in his revi- 

 sion of Brandt's list, places albicla as a synonym oï populifer Stim- 

 pson, while Selenka's albicla he regards as a synonym of Brandt's 

 miniata. According to Ludwig therefore there are 3 Cucumarias on 

 the Pacific coast, as follows: 



Cucumaria miniata (Brandt) = alhida Selenka. 



populifer (Stimpson) = albida Brandt. 

 nigricans (Brandt) = piperata Stimpson. 

 As I shall show, there is reason to doubt the identity of albicla Selenka 

 with miniata Brandt, and that may involve the standing oi populifer 

 Stimpson. In 1S86, Théel's splendid work on Holothurians was 

 published in the Challenger Reports. In it he includes the species 

 given by Selenka but unites Liosoma sitchaense Brandt and Chiro- 

 dota discolor Esch. into one species. And he adds a new one. Cucu- 

 maria Chronhjelmi from Vancouvers Island. In 1896, Columbia Uni- 

 versity sent a party of zoologists to Puget Sound to investigate the 

 fauna of that region, and the following summer a second party supple- 

 mented their work. A general account of the collecting in 1896 was 

 published in 1897 by the late N. R. Harrington , and in that account 

 bespeaks of 6 kinds of Holothurians; a "bronze-red Cucumaria^', a "small 

 white Cucumaria^\ a "white TAyowe-like" species, a "species of Sij- 

 napta'', a Psolus and Holothuria calif ornica. The collections brought 

 home by the parties of both 1896 and 1897 contain only 4 species 

 however, the Synapta^ the Psolus and 2 species of Cucumaria. The Sy- 

 napta is probably identical with Selenka's albicans and one of the 

 Cucumarias is a representative of Théel's Chronhjelmi. The Psolus 

 and the other Cucumaria are new species and have been named Psolus 

 chitonoides and Cucumaria lubrica. The descriptions of these species is 

 now in press. 



We see from the foregoing review that up to the present time 

 16 species of Holothurians have been recorded from the Pacific coast 

 but most of them have been described either so incompletely or from 

 such scanty material that their positive identification at the present 

 time is a matter of great difficulty. The collection before me from 

 Pacific Grove sheds considerable light on some of the doubtful forms 



