K. JUTSFKUEI : STT'DIES ON 



Textfig. 18. 



Holothuria isvga : 



a — c — Tables of tlorsum ; 



(I — ■/ — Same of ventrum. 



(x3U0). 



besides these, some very peculiar 

 modifications of the table. The 

 edges of the crown, which may or 

 may not be complete, send out- 

 ward processes which unite with 

 similar i:)rocesses arising from the 

 outer parts of the disk. The re- 

 sult is sometimes a very irregular 

 and complicated figure. Buttons 

 are mostly irregular in shajDC. 

 Remarks : — I must confess that I have been sorely puzzled 

 over these specimens. It seems probable, judging from what has 

 been brought out in Siichopvs japonlcus, that the tables found in 

 these specimens are senile forms. We must then judge by those 

 of the specimens that show the ta])les in a nearly perfect state. It 

 is evident that my specimens are closely related to Holothuria 

 varjahunda. But there is this dilTerencc : in //. car/ahunda the 

 more imperfect the tables are, the larger becomes the crown of 

 the spire in comparison with the disk, while in the specimens under 

 treatment the crowns are much smaller than the disk. It seemed 

 to me that my specimens come also very close to //. fusco-ruhra, 

 but in that species the pedicels should be '• much more numerous 

 than the dorsal papilla', which arc comparatively few, so that an 

 obvious line of demarcation is discernible betweeii the dorsal and 

 the ventral surfaces " (Theel '80, p. 182), whereas in my speci- 

 mens the pedicels extend all over the body except on the narrow 

 median dorsal streak which has long papilla?, and there is no 

 obvious demarcation between the dorsal and the ventral surface. 

 Moreover, for //. fusco-ruhra no mention was made by Theel of the 

 peculiarly modified tables, although tliis may be due to the fact 



