SEA-STARS AND SEA-URCHINS. IO5 



accompanying plate, protruding from a crevice in the rock. It 

 is the Sea-cucumber (Cucumaria pentactes], a species that 

 requires a fair pair of eyes to detect it. Certainly, when seen 

 for the first time, unless the finder had previously read about 

 Sea-cucumbers, it would never strike him as being a relation 

 of the Sea-stars and Urchins. There are no spines, no limy 

 plates; instead, the body is soft and molluscous, so that it 

 can progress by its alternate extension and contraction. But 

 a careful scrutiny of the appendages encircling the mouth 

 might awaken suspicion, for there are ten branching rays, and 

 then it might be noted that the body has five distinct angles, 

 and that these angles are pierced with pores not unlike those 

 of the Urchins, through which protrude sucker-feet. This, he 

 would consider, constituted a very strong case in favour of 

 their relationship to the Echinoderms ; and in this conclusion 

 he would be in agreement with the scientific men, who have, 

 however, also taken the Sea-cucumber's internal arrangement 

 into consideration. Another point which suggests affinity 

 with the Sea-stars especially with the Brittle section is 

 their trick when suffering from want of food or lack of oxygen 

 in the water surrounding them, of throwing off portions of 

 their body, and thus increasing their chances of life by their 

 reduction of the area or bulk that has to be fed or refreshed. 

 The animated Cucumber not only throws off its rays for such 

 reasons, but also its mouth and dental apparatus, and its 

 intestines and ovaries are turned out, and only an empty 

 hollow bag remains. Should its prospects brighten through 

 the access of food and the oxygenating of its surroundings, it 

 will, in the course of a few months, reproduce these sacrificed 

 organs, and make a fresh start with a new lease of life. This 

 is a close connection of the tropical Beche de Mer, of which 

 the Malays make Trepang, a very important item in their 

 trade with China, by whom it is used as a choice article of 

 food. 

 The creature to the left of the Sea-cucumber, on page 103, is 



