HOMARUS. 



A. The r<r./.rm 



which have the bod 



iliiMlil soft, vermiform, and the tentacular sucker* very 

 orevennuU. Three division*. 



body 

 small 



I 



diepoted in five hands. (CMe.eh.ftej, 



S. Very smell 



A The jKtstyerm l/tlMMmria (Pfolmt), whoM body U. on the con- 

 trary, short, coriaceous, convex above, flattened below, with superior 

 rather then terminal orincea. 

 1. Skin M it wen squamous. (Omeria, Peron.) 

 1 Skin rugose, but soft. (Pntiu, Oken.) 



C The ordinary or IVrfUb/er** lloltfkurur, whose body U suffi- 

 eieetly s.<tslsd. sufficiently soft, subcylin.irical, and covered 

 throughout with Untaculifonn suckers, the lowest of which are 



1. Vent (anus) largely open. (l/olotkna.) 



5. Vent plaited. (fefcufadUe, Jnger.) 



6. Vent cloeed with fire teeth. (Uvllena, Jger.) 



D. Ifolotkmria, whose body is more or lees elongated ; the lower ten- 

 tacular suckers longer than the upper ones, and disposed in longi- 

 tudinal eerie* in a determined number. 



1. Sucker* in three row*. (Stirhoptu, Brandt) 



2. Suckers in five row*. (Diplopcridcri*, Brandt) 



The Cmntmiform Holotkuritr, whose body is but little elongated, 

 iswre or I*** fusiform, pentagonal, with tentaculiform suckers form- 

 ing five ambulacra, on* on each angle. (Brandt) 

 ]. Tentacular suckers very small or null. (Liotomo, Brandt) 

 i Suckers very visible. 



e. Tentacle* pinnated, ramose. (Cltulodactyliu, Brandt.) 

 6. Tentacles pinnatifid. (Dactylota, Brandt) 



F. The 9ifmmeli/*-m Holotkvrio. Body more or leas suddenly 

 lls*jiie>iil backward*, of an ill-defined pentagonal form, without 

 either ambulacra or suckers ( ? ). Tentacles simple, short, and cylin- 

 drical, as in the Actinia. (Molpadi*, Cuvier.) 



1. if. /TofcrfAwtMoV*. (Cuvier.) 



S. M. mmtenUu. (Riseo.) 



When M. De Bbinville says that he has never heard that any of 

 thset snimsls were of much utility to mankind, but that M. Delle 

 Chiaje does indeed inform us that the poor inhabitants of the Nea- 

 i ooeets eat them, he appears to have forgotten the great oriental 

 carried on with some of the specie*, as an article of food, under 

 of Trepang or Tripeng, Biche-de-Mer or Beche-de-Mer. 

 Flinders fell in with a fleet of Malay proas at the English 

 Company's Island*, north coast of Australia, near the Gulf of Car- 

 pentaria (1803), and was informed that sixty proas belonging to the 

 raja of Boni, and carrying one thousand men, bad left Macassar with 

 the north-west monsoon, two months before, on an expedition to that 

 ruaet "The object of their expedition," write* Captain Flinders 

 (' Voyage to Terra Australia'), " was a certain marine animal called 

 Trrpeng. Of this they gave me two dried specimens ; and it proved 

 to be the Beebe-de-Mer, or Sea-Cucumber, which we bad first seen on 

 the reef* of the east coast, and bad afterwards hauled on shore so 

 plentifully with the seine, especially in Caledon Bay. They got the 

 Trepang by diving, in from three to eight fathoms water ; and where 

 it is abundant, a man will bring up eight or ten at a time. The mode 

 of preserving it i* this : the animal U split down one side, boiled, 

 >d pressed with a weight of stones, then stretched open with slips of 

 bamboo, dried in the sun, and afterwards in smoke, when it is fit to 

 he pot away in bags, but requires frequent exposure to the sun. A 

 thonesnd tnpangs make a 'picol ' (of about 125 Dutch pounds) ; and 

 on* hundred picola are a cargo for a prow. It U carried to Timor, 

 end sold to the Chines*, who meet them there ; and when all the 

 prow* are seefmbled, the fleet returns to Msresear. By Timor seemed 

 to be intact Timor-laoet ; for when I inquired concerning the English, 

 Dutch, and Portuguese there, Pobusoo (Captain Flinders'* informant) 

 knew nothing of them : he had beard of Coepang, a Dutch settlement, 

 bat said it was on another island. There are two kinds of Trepang : 

 the black, called Baatoo. is sold to the Chinese for forty dollars the 

 picol ; the white or grsy, called Koro, i* worth no more than twenty. 

 The Baatoo seems to be what we found upon the coral reefs near the 

 Northumberland Islands ; and, were a colony established in Broad 

 Sound or Shoal-Water Bay, it might perhaps derive considerable 



- (* tram the Trepeng. In the Gulf of Carpentaria we did not 



* any other then the Koro, or Gray Slug." 

 tain Phillip Parker King, who quote* a part of the above passage 

 of the IntPrtmpical Coaste of Au.tralia'), found a fleet of 

 in the bay at Cuepang (1818) : H had just returned from 

 eVl voyage on the south const of Timor in aearuh of 

 ramab, the principal raja of the fleet, gave Captain King 

 iff information respecting the coast of Australia, which 

 . raja had TreqoenUy viaited in the command of a fleet that annually 

 frequent* H* shores. The coaat is called by them ' Mairga, 1 and haa 

 bee i known to them for many years. A fleet to the number of 1! 



proas (but Captain King thinks that this number is perhaps very 

 much exaggerated) annually leaves Macassar for this fishery ; it sails 

 in January, during the western monsoon, and coast* from island to 

 island, until it reaches the north-east end of Timor, when it steers 

 south-east and south-south-east which courses carry them to the coast 

 of Australia ; the body of the fleet then steers eastward, leaving here 

 and there a division of 15 or 16 proas, under the command of an 

 inferior raja, who leads the fleet, and is always implicitly obeyed. 

 His proa is the only vessel which is provided with a compass ; it also 

 has one or two swivels, or small guns, and is perhaps armed with 

 musket*. Their provisions chiefly consist of rice and cocoa-nuts; 

 and their water, which during the westerly monsoon is easily re- 

 plenished on all parts of the coast i* carried in joints of bamboo. 

 " After having fished along the coast to the eastward until the westerly 

 monsoon breaks up, they return, and by the hut day of May each 

 detached fleet leaven the coast without waiting to collect in one body. 

 On their return they steer north-west, which brings them to some part 

 of Timor, from whence they easily retrace their step* to Macauar, 

 where the Chinese traders meet them, and purchase their cargoes. At 

 this time (1818) the value of the trepang was from forty to fifty dollars 

 a picol; so that if each vessel returns with 100 picols of tr.-p;i!i 

 cargo will be worth 5000 dollars. Besides trepang, they trade in 

 sharks' fins and bird*' nests, the latter being worth about 3000 dollars 

 the picoL" [SWALLOW TRIBB.) To this Captain King appends n 

 stating that in 1822 the value of the trepang was much less, the prico 

 having fallen to 25 dollars the picol. 



In Crawford's ' Indian Archipelago ' it is stated that the Slug, or 

 Trepang, is sometimes as much aa two feet in length and from seven to 

 eight inches in circumference; a span long and two or three inche* in 

 girth is however the ordinary size. But the quality and value do n..t 

 depend upon iU size, but upon properties not discernible by those who 

 have not had much experience in the trade. In shallow water the animal 

 is taken out by the Hand, but in deeper water it is sometimes speared. 

 When taken, it U gutted, dried in the sun, and smoked over a wood- 

 fire. The fishery is carried on from the western shores of New Guinea 

 and the southern shores of Australia, to Ceylon inclusive. Indeed 

 within the last few years it has been successfully prosecuted on the 

 shores of the Mauritius. The whole produce goes to China. In the 

 market of Macassar, the great staple of this fishery, not less than 

 thirty varieties are distinguished, varying in price from 5 Spanish 

 dollars a picol (133J Ibs.) to fourteen times that price, each variety 

 being distinguished by well known names. The quantity of trepang 

 sent annually to China from Macassar is about 7000 picols, or S333 

 cwt ; the price usually varying from 8 dollars a picol to 110 and 115 

 dollars a picol, according to quality. There is also a considerable 

 export of trepang from Manilla to Canton. 



(M'Culloch, Dictionary of Commerce, article Tripan;/.) 

 HOMALIA'CEiE, a small natural order of shrubby Exogenous 

 Plants with polypetalous flowers, a row of glands in front of the seg- 

 ments of the calyx, many perigynous stamens, and a 2-5-styled ovary, 

 with as many parietal placenta; as styles. The species chiefly inhabit 

 tropical countries ; they have small starry flowers, and are of no known 

 utility. Brown considers them nearly related to Pattijtoractas. Lindley 

 places them near Cucurbitaceif, Loataceac, Cactacea, and Onagraecac. 

 There are 8 genera and SO specie*. 



flomalium raermomm. 

 1, Ul expanded (lower ; 3, an ovary with It* two utrlrn. 



1 10 '.MARTS (Milue- Edwards), a genus of Animals belonging to the 

 order Crutlaeea. It embraces the true Lobsters. Milne-Edwards has 

 noticed certain .1 ..Iii'-h induce him to Bepam'.e the true 



