374 



CHAS. W. HARGITT. 



3. Spurs. These features are among the most common of 

 the variant phenomena associated with the radial canals. Very 

 fewjnedusae fail to exhibit something of the sort in greater or 

 less degree. They are, however, more than usually abundant in 

 Rhegmatodes, In a forthcoming paper on " Variations Among 

 the Scyphomedusx " : I call attention to similar conditions 

 associated with the abundant anastomoses which occur in species 

 of Anrclia. As shown in several of the accompanying figures, 

 especially 9 to 12, they probably have some such relation in 

 RJicgmalodes. 



4. Anastomoses. These are features, as just suggested, in- 

 volving to some extent the preceding, and almost as common, 

 especially in RJieguiatodcs. Figs. 10 to 14 are a few illus- 

 trations of a condition found in many specimens, both small 

 .and large. Whether a similar condition may be found to occur 

 in other yEquoridae I do not know, or whether similar features 

 exist in other of the Hydromedusae having supernumerary canals 

 is apparently unknown. When compared with the complex 

 canal system found in the genus Aurelia it would at once sug- 

 gest the query as to whether it 

 might imply any phyletic relation 

 with these medusae. But this 

 does not seem to me to be the 

 case. It has probably only a 

 more or less indefinite correspond- 

 ence in the most general way, 

 barely enough likeness to suggest 

 a remote parallelism, but noth- 

 ing of greater significance. Fur- 

 thermore, as suggested in the 

 previous section, it is difficult to 



FIG. 8. Showing variously branched percdve anvt hing like a definite 

 and united canals. . . . 



variation in a given direction, 



tending toward the establishment of a type of hydromedusa with 

 a complicated and correlated canal system such as that of 

 Aurelia. And while the total of these variational features 

 reached as high as 27 per cent., which is but slightly higher 



1 " Variations Among the Scyphomedusse," Jour. Exp. Zoo/., Vol. II. 



