OCR Text |
Show 174 MESSRS. L. MURBACH AND C. SHEARER ON [June 16, to a sticky secretion on the bell-surface or to mere roughness of this surface on which small particles become lodged. Forbes (16), in speaking of T. pilosella, says of the bell : " It is transparent and smooth, except on the sides towards the margin, where it is as if woolly, being invested with minute epidermic hairs composed of fibrous cells." Perhaps the presence of these foreign bodies was due to some similar condition. The question cannot, however, be settled from formalin material, as in this fluid the bell-surface takes on a peculiar scaly appearance, no woolly or hairy condition can be made out. Haeckel (18) has called attention to the similarity between this species and that reported from Greenland. Our specimens differ from the Greenland species in the possession of broader oral lobes, the bell- or bottle-shaped tentacle-bulbs, and the fact that the gonads are situated throughout the whole length of the radial canals. II. CANNOTID^E Haeckel. Subfamily POLYORCHID^E A. Agassiz. POLYORCHIS A. Agassiz. 1. POLYORCHIS MINUTA, sp. nov. (Plate XIX. fig. 3 and Plate XXII. fig. 1.) Specific description.-The bell is 15 m m . high by 12 m m . broad, a truncated oval with thick walls. It is broadest above the middle of its height, measuring the 12 m m . already given. A prominent cone-shaped gelatinous peduncle depends from the bell-roof, and to this the stomach, the upper ends of the radial canals, and the gonads are attached. The bell is drawn in towards the mouth so that its diameter at this point is only 9 m m . The lower truncated edge of the bell is nearly as broad as the velum. This is strong and 2'5 m m . in breadth. There are eight delicate adradial lines running meridionally in the bell-substance. There are 55 tentacles-26 large, 20 medium, and 9 rudimentary. There are nine more spaces, so that 64 tentacles should be present in all. The hollow tentacles are stout and taper to form a rather long root at their proximal end. They are slightly swollen just at the junction of the root and tentacle proper forming the tentacle-bulb. The mature tentacles which are attached to the bell-margin by these long roots are carried very much as shown in PI. X I X . fig. 3. Small tentacles during growth move outward on the lower truncate bell-margin, producing thus the appearance of several rows one above the other. On some of the tentacles there appear smooth areas free from nematocysts, whereas, as a rule, the whole surface of the tentacle is usually covered with large and small nematocysts. The ocelli are yellowish green in the preserved condition, and |