Mr C. Collier on the Sect-Shig of India. 47 



Some advantage is derived from it, as an article of commerce, 

 in Ceylon ; for, after being dried, it is exported in large quantities 

 to China *. The animal is found throughout the year on this 

 coast, attached to rock, or lying on the sand, surrounded by 

 species of Haliotis, Patella and Lepas, in shallows close to the 

 shore. Its surface is of a deep black colour, soft and gelatinous 

 to the feel, and studded over with papillary bodies f , by means 

 of which, it attaches itself to objects, and probably absorbs the 

 water, with which its cavity is always more or less distended. Its 

 length and circumference vary exceedingly |, both from age and 

 rapid but partial contraction. The extremity where the mouth 

 is situated is flat, compared with the opposite end, where the 

 anus is, and which is tapering. Through this latter aperture, 

 the water contained within the sac is thrown with considerable 

 force. It can withdraw, as M. Lamarck has observed, all its 

 external organs § ; and it can, besides, expel through the posterior 

 opening, or by rupture, through the outer covering, all its inter- 

 nal organs, leaving the empty sac (as it may be termed) to part, 

 after a few hours, with the signs of vitality |j. 



The mouthy is strengthened with a calcareous or cartilaginous 



" This employment of it has been alluded to by Linnreus, for he in- 

 ((uires : An htec qiioe, teste 111. Pallas, siccata, Sinensibus in cibum cedit ? 

 Syst. Nat. part vi. p. 3139. 



f The apices of these papillary bodies are white, and llattened, or rather 

 concave and perforated. They resemble, excepting in size, those which are 

 extended along the branches of the asterias, and described minutely by M. 

 Cuvier, in his Legons d'Anatomie Comparee, vol. i. p- 407- 



X An individual is sometimes found eighteen inches long. Crawford says, 

 some of tlie Tripang or Holothuriae are as much as two feet in length, and 

 from seven to eight incli^s in circumference. The length of a span, and the 

 girth of from two to three inches, however, is the ordinary size. Edit. 



§ Les Holothuries sont tres contractiles, elles font rentrer, facilement et 

 completement, tous leurs organes exterieurs, tels que leurs tentacules, leur 

 Iiouche meme, leurs papilles, et leurs tubes aspiratoires. Hist. Nat. des 

 Anim. sans Vert., vol. iii. p. 73. 



II This expulsion has not, so far as I know, been noticed by authors, but 

 it follows so uniformly tlic least violence, or removal for a short period from, 

 the liabitat, th.it a view of the parts in situ can very rarely be obtained. It 

 is noted by Tiedemann. — Edit. 



% Linnicus sup])oscd that, as in the asterias, tlierc was but one ojjening 

 for the alimentary canal : — " Holothuria; omnes, maris incolx', ])er apcrlu- 

 ram anteriorem nutrinientum Iiauriunt et fieces expellunt ; per posteriorcni 

 aquani ingressam ejiciunt." Syst. Nat. part vi. p. 3140. 



