REPORT ON THE HOLOTHURIOIDEA. 
187 
There is good reason for referring this form to a new species, but considering that it 
presents in several respects great similarities to Holothuria murrayi, and that I have 
had at my disposal only a single specimen, I prefer for the present to regard it as a 
variety of this species. Length, 72 mm. Body fusiform, about 23 mm. broad at the 
middle. Pedicels numerous, cylindrical, about 2-5 mm. long, scattered over the dorsal 
surface and the sides of the body. The pedicels of the ventral surface are very minute 
and scarcely visible to the naked eye. Colour yellowish- white. Deposits — tables with a 
spire composed of three arms with spinous apices and a single transverse beam (PI. IX. 
fig. 2, a, b, c, d). Pedicels apparently without transverse supporting rods but with well- 
developed terminal plates. Mouth turned downwards ; anus terminal. A single Polian 
vesicle. The figures will give the best idea of the external appearance of the animal and 
of the shape of the deposits. 
Holothuria murrayi (var.?) (PI. IX. fig. 3). 
Habitat. — Station V., January 28, 1873 ; lat. 35° 47' N., long. 8° 23' W.; depth, 
1090 fathoms ; bottom temperature, 38°'5 ; Globigerina ooze. 
A single specimen, 80 mm. long, dififering from the t 3 rpicalform principally in that the 
ambulacral appendages, which are evidently true pedicels, are more numerous on the 
dorsal surface and the sides of the body. Even the calcareous ring (PL IX. fig. 3) is 
somewhat different, which will be understood from the figures. Colour greyish, inclining 
to violet. From the scanty materials I could not undertake any more detailed examina- 
tion, but, so far as I can judge, there can be but little doubt that this form is identical 
with, or at least very nearly related to those brought home from Station 300. 
The three species above mentioned, viz., Holothuria lactea, Holothuria thomsoni, and 
Holothuria murrayi, form a group by themselves among the numerous representatives of 
the genus Holothuria, and it is very probable that they may be properly placed in a new 
D-enus, or, at least, in a subgenus. Indeed, Holothuria thomsoni differs so strikingly from 
all forms hitherto known that I should not hesitate to refer it to a new genus if I had not 
had the opportunity of examining the two other forms, which evidently form a transition 
to the true Holothuria. Holothuria thomsoni is distinguished by twelve tentacles, and 
its variety by fifteen, numbers of tentacles hitherto unknown in any species of Holothuria. 
Thatwhich seems to be common to the three species above mentioned and their varieties is, 
firstly, the conformation of the calcareous deposits, and secondly, the peculiarity that the 
pedicels of the two lateral ventral ambulacra either form a simple distinct row, or that, if 
they are more numerous and crowded, some of them are larger and more or less distinct!}' 
arranged in a row along each side of the body. 
