Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/298

Rh through the middle into two or more parts, all becoming ultimately perfect by the development of new organs."

This spontaneous division I lately had an opportunity of witnessing in a Echinoderm of great rarity, so rare that I know not whether any British zoologist has seen it before, since its discovery on the South Devon Coast by Montagu. Professor Forbes says he had never met with a living example. I allude to Chirodota digitata.

Many living specimens of this species were forwarded to me by the kindness of the Rev. C. Kingsley, who obtained them in the vicinity of Torquay. He says, "I got this and Actinia chrysanthellum in two contiguous coves, washed up after a heavy gale [in January] in company with Lutraria elliptica, and the common red hag-worm, indicating life on a mud-sand bottom."

This animal is a very worm-like Holothuria, nearly cylindrical in form when in health. The largest of my specimens extended to ten inches, with an average diameter of one-fourth of an inch. The posterior extremity is always plump and rounded, sometimes swollen to an oval sac, half an inch in diameter and two inches long. The body is covered with annular striæ, most distinct on the fore half.

Notwithstanding the cylindrical form, a dorsal and a ventral side may be readily distinguished. The former has, as its general colour, a hue approaching to the Indian-red of artists, while the latter is of a pale pellucid flesh-colour. The body is marked by five