64 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Octobeb 30, 1860. 
growing in decomposed limestone rocks. And if he will favour 
me with a visit next year I will show him it in its native habitat. 
The Fruit Committee of the Horticultural Society state that 
the Black Tripoli and Frankenthal Grape are the same. There 
must be some great mistake somewhere. The true Black Tripoli 
of Welbeck is one of the best of Hamburghs—always a good 
colour, thin-skinned, and very sweet; bunches a good form, and 
medium sized. On the other hand, Frankenthal seldom attains 
a good black, is thicker skinned, less juicy, and less sweet; and 
is, in fact, a very inferior Grape—not worth cultivation. 
The Raby Castle Currant has been also called “ May’s Vic¬ 
toria but for what reason I know not, except for sale. It is 
frequently confounded with the Haughton Castle—a much more 
recent production with shorter bunches. The original trees, I 
am told, are still at Raby, and still bear remarkably fine fruit if 
properly managed. They require annual pruning to one or two 
eyes, or they will not break the lower eyes. No Currant will 
keep so long as the Raby Castle. It is no uncommon thing to 
have them in December from a north wall. It is a very acid 
Currant, and the best for jelly.— Thomas Shortt, Raby Castle. 
WHAT TO LOOK FOE OH THE SEASHORE 
(Continued from page 37) 
Echinodebmata ( Continued ). 
Holothueid.e. 
The Holothuridse, or Sea Cucumbers, approximate on the 
one hand to the Annelides, or Worms, and on the other they 
resemble soft Sea Urchins. The vulgar name, “Sea Cucumbers,” 
is very expressive of their form, but they are by no means 
elegant creatures—to be plain, they are rather repulsive than 
otherwise in their appearance; still, when the gay fringe of 
their tentacles is fully displayed, it is impossible not to regard 
them with some degree of pleasure and admiration. 
We are very destitute of information regarding 
the habits of these creatures. The rarity with which 
they are met with, and the great difliculty of exa¬ 
mining them when found with any degree of satisfac¬ 
tion, may be among the causes which have deterred 
our marine zoologists from devoting more time and 
attention to them. It is certain, however, that they 
possess many strange peculiarities which would amply 
repay a more careful study of them habits. They 
usually live among sea-weeds or in mud, and are 
supposed to seize their prey by the aid of their 
large tentacles. The skin is, in most cases, soft 
and leathery ; in some species, however, it is pro¬ 
tected by horny or calcareous spines. The body is 
divided into longitudinal segments by five avenues of 
suckers, which suckers are similar to those of the 
true Star Fishes and Sea Hedgehogs. They have 
a double mode of progression, one by means of these 
suckers, and another by the extension and contrac¬ 
tion of their bodies like worms. They have two 
apertures placed, oae at each extremity of the 
body. One of them, the mouth, is surrounded by 
plumose tentacles, which when complete always re¬ 
present some multiple of five; but as these animals 
are strangely subject to the loss or absence of their 
parts, either by design or accident, it often happens that 
the number is irregular, which has given rise to the forma¬ 
tion of different species, a more careful examination of which 
would have referred them to one and the same. These 
animals possess the power of withdrawing their tentacles within 
the mouth, and when deprived of freedom they will often keep 
them so withdrawn for days together, although lively and active 
enough in all other respects. The tentacles when thus retracted 
remain witlnn the dental circle, the teeth being similar to those 
of the. Echini. Through them passes the oesophagus, which 
opens into the stomach; whence a complicated intestine proceeds 
to the posterior extremity of the body, and there discharges its 
contents, into a funnel-shaped receptacle, into which open also 
the respiratory organs. There is a vascular and nervous circle 
suirounding the mouth, and vessels diverge from them to 
the various parts of the body. The inner surface of the skin is 
med with longitudinal and transverse muscles, serving the pur- 
Cucumbers also have the marvellous faculty of ejecting the 
whole of their viscera, and even sometimes burst their bodies by 
their violent convulsive contractions. The ejecting the viscera, 
or the rejection of other parts of their organism, seems to give 
them very little concern, and to subject them to the least possible 
inconvenience. Sir John G. Dalyell states that he hd observed 
them “ lose their tentacula, with the cylinder (dental apparatus) 
mouth, oesophagus, lower intestinal parts, and the ovarium, 
separating from within, and leaving the body an empty sac 
behind, yet it does not perish ; in three or four months all the 
lost parts are regenerated, and a new funnel composed of new 
branches as long as the long body of the animal, begins to 
exhibit the same peculiarities as the old one, though longer time 
be required to attain perfection. Other species of the Holo- 
thuria divide spontaneously through the middle into two or 
more parts, all becoming ultimately perfect by the develop¬ 
ment of new organs, yet the anatomical structure of the whole 
genus is so complex as to defy the skill of anatomists in dis¬ 
covering the functions of some of the parts. A single Holo- 
thuria lias produced five thousand ova in the course of a night. 
| The young resemble a white maggot, when the size of a barley¬ 
corn. The animal may lose and regenerate its organs more 
j than once, and is very rarely to be procured entire.” 
; The Holothuridse are distributed throughout all seas, but con¬ 
gregate in the largest numbers in the east. On our shores they 
are comparatively rare ; but they are very abundant abroad, and 
in some places are used as articles of food. Of the Trepang, a» 
before stated, many species are eaten. The orthodox mode of 
dressing them is by extracting the intestines, then boiling them 
in sea-water, and afterwards smoke-drying them. 
Professor Forbes divides the British Holothuridse into form 
families. The Psolidce, Pentactce, the Thy ones , and Synaptce. 
PSOLLDJE. 
The Snail Sea Cucumbbr (Psolusphantapus ).—This creature 
is of an oblong form, turned up at both extremities. It is of a 
poses of contracting and lengthening the body. & The' 
Sea 
brown colour, the head reddish-white with orange spots. The 
body, which measures from six to eight inches in length, and 
from two to three in height, is covered with pectinated scales. 
On the under surface is a soft disc of an oblong-square shape, 
on which are placed three longitudinal rows of suckers. These 
suckers are extremely strong and powerful, and by their aid the 
animal adheres so firmly to rocks and other substances as to 
render it almost impossible to detach it. Indeed, so tenacious 
is its hold, that Professor Forbes states the head of the creature 
has been torn away by the dredge, leaving the remainder of the 
body still attached, when it brought up entire every other fixed 
animal which it came in contact with. The body is covered 
with a strong tough skin, of a deep brown on the upper surface; 
beneath it is lighter, and sometimes marked with orange spots. 
The spines on the skin, which arc arranged like the teeth of a 
comb, somewhat resemble those of the true Star Fishes. The 
head is about an inch in length, and is covered with a soft skin, 
more or less red in colour, with orange or scarlet spots. At its 
