ACTINOrODOT'S HOLOTHURIOIDEA. 145 



dividuals grow larger, these large tables with small apexes seem to 

 disappear. The crowns become all large, so that often the crown 

 is as large as the disk. As a rule, the disk seems to become more 

 and more rudimentary, while the annular crown seems to gi-ow in 

 diameter, and after a while, it sends out processes which may 

 unite and thus produce holes. 



Cuvierian tubes are generally described as reddish brown, 

 and while such seems to be the color in alcoholic si:)ecimens, 

 they are pure white in the fresh state or when shot out, as I 

 can testify from my own observations in collecting this species 

 in Kagosliinia Bay. Those who have seen the tubes shot out 

 and sticking to everything witliin reach, entangling all sorts of 

 animals if placed in the same bucket, can hardly doubt, it seems 

 to me, that they are organs of defense. Anyway they must be 

 said to perform that function remarkably well, even though their 

 primary object be something else. In preserved specimens, the 

 tubes are often half out of the cloaca. By dissecting such 

 specimens, at least in one case, I have found that these tubes 

 were attached to the basal part of the left respiratory tree. 

 When shot out, they seem to pass through an opening temporarily 

 made in the cloacal wall, as I have seen in one case, dorsal to 

 the anus. These facts seem to agree well with those observed 

 by MiNCHiN in //. nigra. 



Locality : — Kosseir (Lampert '85) ; Adeu (Semper 'G9) ; Zuuzibar (Se- 

 UEXKA '67, LuDWiG '99) ; Mozambique (Semper '67 — 8) ; Natal (Lampert '85) ; 

 Port Loiiis, Mauritius (Lampert '89) ; D;u-i-03 I. (Bell '84) ; Seychelles 

 (L\MPERT '85, LuDWiG '99); Tutieorin, Madras (Bell '88); Gulf of Mauaar 

 (Thurston '90) ; Ceylon (Ludwig '90) ; Bay of Bengal (Bell '88) ; Anda- 

 man Is. (Bell '87) ; Nicobar Is. (Ludwig '83; ; Mergui ArcliiiK4ago (Bell 

 '86) ; Gulf of Siam (Lampert '85) ; Simdii Is. (Semper '07—8, Koehusr 



