48 ECHINODERMATA. 



from place to place effected. The tentacula being always first rather 

 affords confinnation of the faculty indicated by their name. 



During entire months a specimen will remain stationary and void 

 of all activity, unless in the evolution of these organs, and even this will 

 be restrained, as already said, by the presence of any other animated 

 being. 



In common mth other tenants of the deep, the Holothuria betrays 

 its noctui'nal habits with the decline of day. Only once in the course 

 of two years that the specimen of Plate IX. survived, were the tentacula 

 unfolded during the day ; nor did I ever see it in progTession the whole 

 of that time. However, all are not alike timid. A small specimen 

 both disregarded the presence of part of an amphitrite in the same vessel, 

 and remained completely displa^a^d a whole day. Originally it lay a 

 month dormant in an ovoidal form. After three months it evinced par- 

 ticular boldness, by allowing the vessel to be gently raised and swung in 

 the hand, without retracting its organs. A specimen of considerable size, 

 obtained on the sixth of June, never displayed its arborescent apparatus 

 completely before the tenth of March subsequent, when it formed a fine 

 funnel, of a crimson colour, two inches vdde, and an inch and a half deep. 

 This animal was very pale, little darker than yello^wish grey ; somewhat 

 larger than the specimen Plate IX., therefore the branches were hardly 

 full grown. It became grayer, and the tentacula coloured between lake 

 and crimson. At length they came to be constantly displayed, though 

 from the excessive timidity of the animal, the slightest shock occasioned 

 their disappearance. 



Thus, some slight variation is seen in the habits of the Holothuria, 

 preserved under observation, just as betrayed among the domestic ani- 

 mals familiar to us. They are timid or they are bold. The common 

 nature of a genus is somewhat diversified in its species : and great dis- 

 crepancies shewn by individuals, denote the difference of temperament 

 gradually leading to a separation. 



But there is little interest to be found in such descriptive remarks. 

 Naturalists have indulged in scarcely any other of the Holothuria. I say 



