329 
do really belong to the Holothurian and they may thus be regarded 
as typically belonging to this species, like the foliaceous spicules, 
but like these latter of very variable (rare) occurrence. 
Stichopus juv. 
From Paterson Inlet, Stewart Isl., 5—15 fms., mud, there is 
a very small specimen of a Stichopus, only 9 mm long (somewhat 
contracted) which I must hesitate in simply referring to Stichopus 
Fig. 22. Spicules of Stichopus mollis. 
a—b. Tables of adult specimen, from above (a) and in side view (b); c—d 
the same from a young specimen; e. spinous rod from the skin; f. thorny 
rods from the tentacles. a—e. f. ®®/i. 
mollis. It is white, differing thus very markedly in colour from the 
dark brown or black St. mollis; this, however, may easily be im- 
agined to be only a character of youth. More important is the 
difference in the spicules. These are tables, as in St. mollis, but 
the spire is more elongate and the spines of the crown distinctly 
more numerous and smaller than in the adult St. mollis; also the 
disk is'more regular round in the young specimen (Figs. 22.c d. to 
compare with Figs. 22.a—b). In view of the small size of this specimen 
it is clear that any other differences which might be pointed out be- 
tween this specimen and the adult St. mollis may be due to age. 
But it does seem rather enigmatical why the tables of the young 
should be so characteristically different from those of the adult. 
So long as we know only the one species of Stichopus, S. mollis 
from New Zealand, it lies at hånd to suppose that this is really 
the young of this species; but the marked differences pointed out 
must make us put off simply declaring it to be so, until inter- 
