28 JANUARY. 



nearly allied as to belong to the same class, that 

 named ECHINODERMATA ; the Sea-urchins, creatures 

 totally diverse in aspect from both, connecting the 

 forms together. 



And this Cucumber, again, is connected with the 

 proper worms (ANNELLIDA) by some obscure animals 

 which bear the name of Siponcles. Here is one which 

 may illustrate the form, the Dotted Siponcle. 1 It has 

 a cylindrical body, rounded and abruptly pointed behind, 

 which is of a light-brown hue, with a satiny gloss ; 

 but the hue resolves itself under a powerful lens into a 

 freckling of pale dots, excessively numerous, on a brown 

 ground, and the lustre into a multitude of close-set 

 annular wrinkles. What is curious in the creature is 

 the protrusion and retraction of its trunk. From the 

 front end of the body we see rapidly protruding, by 

 evolution of the parts, a rather slender trunk, till it 

 attains about one-third the length of the body ; then its 

 tip expands, and is seen to be surrounded by eight rows 

 of black points, and within these a circle of slender, 

 white, thread-like tentacles. These latter are the re- 

 presentatives of the gorgeous head-plumes of the 

 Cucumber. Immediately the long trunk is turned out 

 to the outmost, it begins to be rolled in again ; and this 

 process goes on with equal rapidity till it is quite con- 



1 Sipunculus punctatissimus, figured in Plate in., to the left. 



