CASSIOPEA. Ill, 



Cassiopea frondosa Lamarck. 

 Plate 69, figs, i to 3; plate 72, the 3 upper figures. 



Medusa frondosa, PALLAS, 1774, Spicilcgia Zodi i . 10, pp. 29, 30, plate 2, figs. i-;. CMIMN. i-sv ir-r, 



tomus I, pars 6, p. 3157. Bosr, 1802, Hist. N.K. J Vers., tome 2, p. 170. 



Cassiopea frondosa, LAMAKCK, 1816, Hist. N.il. Arum, -ans \Yrt., tome 2, p. 51;. I !.rn, 



p. 43. TlLE8!US| 1834, Acad ' ! . 'a., torn. 15, pp. 263, 278, tab. l.> . . : 



Acal., p. 405. MiLNE-EDWARDS, 1849, Cuvirr's Rrgne Animal, Zooph., plate 51, fu'. ',. I'IUKI-.-. mci>. V .ir I 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, No. 4, p. 115; MJOX. Publication No. 102, < u I 152, 



plate 4. 



Cassiopea pa/lasii, PRON ct Lcsueur, 1808, Anna], der Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, tome 14. p. -,;-. \r. 85. 



Polyclonia frondosa, ACASSIZ, L., 1860, Cont. Nat. Hist. U. S., vol. 3, plates 13, 130; 1862, IbiJ., vol. 4, pp. 139-148, 159. 

 AGASSIZ, A., 1865, North Amer. Acal., p. 41 ; rXSr, Vitun . \ol. 24, p. 509. See aim Archer, H., Il/iJ., p. 307. - HMI >.> r. 

 1880, Syst.,1. i Mr in .-n, p. 568; 1 88 1, Report H..M.S. C/iallr n g, , . Zool.,1 i. 4. p. XMII. VAMI..I i >s. iXSX. HiMiotheu 

 Zoologica, B.I. r, Heft. 3, p. 40. Bic;r.io\v, R. P., 1893, Johns Hopkins I n ' < 'Mars. vol. 2. No. 106, p. 10*. (habits, 



physiology). PERKINS, 1906, Year Book, Carnegie Institution of Washington, No. 4, p. 115; i.,o,X, Publication No. 102, 

 t'arncgie Institution of Washington, p. 152. 



Disk flat, with rounded edge, and about 120 to 260 mm. in diameter. I lu-ic is no con- 

 cavity at the center ot the exumbrella, such as is seen in Cassiopea tcamachana. 1 "here are 

 constantly 12 marginal sense-organs in ('.. jronJosti, 4 perradial, 8 acliadia]. iai.li nt" which 

 contains a terminal entodermal mass of crystalline concretions. Thi-ie au no ocelli. There 

 are 60 short, subrectangular, nearly straight-edged, marginal lap]>ets. 5 lni\\ecn i-ai h sur- 

 cessive pair ot marginal s< nsr-oio-ms. The lappets flanking the sense-oi;aiis .nt only hall 

 as wide as the other lappets. The 4 pairs of mouth-arms anse t'n>ni a shallow, flat, niouth- 

 arm-disk at the center ot' the subumbrella; this arm-disk is not quite as wide as the semi- 

 diameter of the medusa. The mouth -a mis, which are about three-fourths as longas bell-radius, 

 usually bifurcate at their tree ends and <M\e rise to short, piiinatt- side blanches tiom then 

 oral sides; but occasionally the branches are quite long as in (.',itM'-/>,-,i \,nn,i, h,iiin. The 

 numerous trilled mouths are found exclu.si\el\ upon their lo\\ei sidis, the tippei sides ot the 

 mouth-arms being smooth and without mouths. Scattered <|mu u ni I or ml \ between the mouths 

 are 30 to 40 small, expanded, flat, leaf-shaped vesicles. Tin n are 4 small, nnmd, inteiradial, 

 subgenital pits, and 4 separate, in vagina ted genital sacs which project into the stomach- 1 avity. 

 A duct extends from each of the 8 mouth-arms into the central stomach, and 24 radial-canals 

 pass outward from the stomach into the subumbrella and are put mi<> coinmiimi-.iuon one 

 with another by a network of anastomosing vessels. 12 radial-canals go to ilie marginal 

 sense-organs and 12 are intermediate in position. 



General color of gelatinous substance amber-yellow, slight h oh\e, 01 giecmsh. Just 

 above each of the 12 marginal sense-organs is usually a single, large, bilatiial. bean-shaped 

 white spot in the gelatinous substance of the exumbrella. Thcic is also a smallei \\lnie spot 

 in each marginal lappet, and above this an irregular line of .j to 5 smaller whin spo.s between 

 each successive pair of marginal sense-organs. A more or less broken, axial, w hue line extends 

 through the length of each mouth-arm in the gelatinous substance. The fulled mouths aie 

 of a cinnamon color and the leaf-like vesicles are opaque, dull \\hite. 'I he spots upon the 

 bell are very variable in number and arrangement i see plates 'u, and 72). 



Ctissiofifa fronJoiii is found throughout tJie West Indian region and the Flojula R. 

 Perkins observes that it lives upon saiulv rather than \ucd\ bottoms. In common with oihei 

 species of the genus it lies upon the bottom w ii h the oral suit'ace and mouth-arms uppemiost. 

 In this position it lemains for long intervals of time, slowK contiacting its disk in a sluggish 

 rhythm. This movement serves not onh to maintain the disk upon the bottom, but to > reat< 

 a water-current overthe mouth-arms. It prefers purer water than ('. xamacfiana, and is usualh 

 found in protected places among the mangroves in the cuts between the Florida Kr\s. 



In Kingston Harbor, [amaica, this medusa is found upon the muddj bottoms ot protected 

 lagoons, especially in those simoundcd by mangroves, neat the h.uboi enuance where the 

 water is quite pure. In Jamaica it attains to a fa i greater size than in Florida. \specimeii 

 which I found in a mangnne lagoon near I 'oil Roxal in Match, n^")- as ot the following 

 dimensions in mm.: Hell 251; \\ide, aim-disk 05 wide, mouth-arms 121) long, pinnateh and 

 complexlv bianchcil. and projecting be\ond the rim of the bell. C'oloi as in the Honda 

 specimens. I am told that the medusa becomes even l.ugcr in Jain 



I,. Agassi/ ( 1X02, p. 1471 showed that the young eplu la of this sjiecies poss. ss. s a ceniial 

 mouth-opening which disappears in the adult. 



