328 
The specimens from Stewart Island are somewhat lighter co- 
loured than those from the other localities, and their dorsal papillæ 
upon the whole less prominent, the dorsal side being sometimes 
quite smooth. As, however, no other differences have been ob- 
served, I have no doubt in referring also these Stewart Island 
specimens to this well known species. To the various descriptions 
quoted above I would add only the faet that the short branches of 
the tentacles are supported by numerous very strong, spinous, curved 
rods (Fig. 22.f). Similar rods may be found, more or less numer¬ 
ous, along the radial water-vessels. 
Ludwig (Op. cit. 1898) has suggested that Hutton’s Holo- 
thuria robsoni may be the same as the present species, and ever 
since it has been taken for granted that it is so. There is, how¬ 
ever, no proof whatever of this suggestion, and since the calcare- 
ous bodies of the type specimen have been dissolved, there is no 
longer any possibility for settling the question. Holoth. robsoni, 
therefore, being no longer recognizable, is a species delenda, no 
more to be taken into account. 
As regards Stichopus simulans Dendy & Hindle I have come 
to the result that it is certainly identical with St. mollis. Among 
the specimens from Stewart Isl. I found two to contain the peculiar 
foliaceous spicules (“rosettes” in usual nomenclature) described by 
Dendy; in one of them I observed only very few of them, in the 
other I found them numerous in one small spot of the skin, but could 
not detect them in any other place. These two specimens are, other- 
wise, so perfeetly alike the rest of the specimens from this locality 
that it would seem quite absurd to regard them as a separate species. 
I may opinion there can be no doubt but that the said foliaceous 
spicules (“rosettes”) belong typically to Stichopus mollis, only they 
are exceedingly variable as to the number in which they oceur, being 
sometimes very numerous in places or, perhaps, in the whole of 
the skin, sometimes very scarce, sometimes apparently totally ab- 
sent. The latter case would seem to be the most common. 
In the same place where the numerous foliaceous spicules were 
found, as stated above, also a number of thin, spinous rods oceur, 
lying quite without order among the other spicules (Fig. 22.e). They 
« 
are partly lying so close that one is reminded of a piece of a mon- 
axonid sponge. But there is no possibility for doubting that they 
