AN ANCIENT FAMILY. 113 



cucumber is rudimentary calcareous matter ar- 

 ranged on the same plan as in the skeleton of 

 its more attractive relatives. 



" In color it is green, brown, or red, and 

 its delicate tentacles are arranged over its sur- 

 face, corresponding to the tiny points mark- 

 ing the vegetable which it so strongly resem- 

 bles as to have received its name. In deep-sea 

 dredgings specimens are often brought up 

 about the size of a marketable cucumber. 



" Although these strange creatures eat and 

 drink they appear to attach very little impor- 

 tance to their stomachs, sometimes actually 

 vomiting up their whole internal structure, 

 and yet live on undisturbed ; in a few months 

 the organs are reproduced. 



"The sea cucumbers are found in many 

 seas, but gain their greatest distinction on the 

 coasts of China and Africa, where they are 

 highly appreciated as articles of diet. In 

 China they are prepared for market under the 

 name of ' trepang.' 



"Although upon first acquaintance these 

 flowerlike animals do not appear to resemble 

 each other, nevertheless we find they preserve 

 the family characteristics of their distinguished 

 progenitors, the stone lilies, so abundant in 

 past ages that whole beds of marble have been 



