410 CLARK. 



and alcoholic, I am convinced that specific differences cannot be 

 distinguished in this genus with any accuracy except in living 

 specimens, and furthermore that coloration is so variable that it 

 is almost useless as a standard in classification. Four species of 

 Stichopiis have been described from the West Indian area, all of 

 them from alcoholic material, by men who have never visited 

 the West Indies, and they are separated from each other by char- 

 acters which are seen in a large series of specimens to intergrade 

 in inextricable confusion. For the present however, the com- 

 monest West Indian species may bear the name vS. iiidbii, be- 

 stowed by Semper, and Heilprin's 5". xantlwmcla is doubtless the 

 same. According to the latter the Bermuda form has eighteen 

 tentacles, but both of the specimens before me have twenty, 

 while one Jamaica specimen has nineteen and another twenty- 

 one. The normal number of tentacles in SticJiopus is however 

 twenty, and any other number is merely an individual peculiarity. 

 The second species of holothurian from Bermuda in my 

 hands is a small one, occurring under broken slabs of rock, and 

 of this there are six specimens. I have compared them with 

 more than a dozen species of small holothurians collected in Ja- 

 maica in similar situations, but they do not agree with any of 

 them satisfactorily. After some hesitation, I have decided to 

 refer them provisionally to Ludwig's Holotliuria siirinauicjisis, as 

 they approach nearest to that species, though the differences are 

 pretty clearly marked. I think it probable that a larger series 

 of specimens will show the Bermuda form to be a new species. 

 Professor Heilprin collected five specimens of a small holothu- 

 rian, which he refers to H. floridana Pourt., but neither in his 

 description nor his plate does he refer to the small rosette-like 

 calcareous bodies, so characteristic of that species and its allies. 

 If they are not present in his specimens, I should think it at 

 least possible that these are the same species as the ones before 

 me. The last of the three species in the New York University 

 collection is obviously either a TJiyriic or a representative of 

 that section of Ciiciunaria to which Lampert gave the name 

 Semperia. There are two specimens about 6 cm. long and 

 agreeing in all particulars with each other. After a careful 



