REPORT ON THE DEEP-SEA MEDUS.E. 45 



In JEginura, as in the other true iEginidse, the gastrovascular system (PL XIII. figs. 1, 

 2, 4, 7 ; PI. XIV. figs. 8, 11, 12) consists of two different principal parts, corresponding 

 to the two principal parts of the umbrella, and separated by its coronal furrow (ec). The 

 central gastral cavity with the oesophagus and oral opening lies on the subumbral side 

 of the central lens of the umbrella, whdst on the subumbral side of the peripheric corona 

 of the umbrella there is a circle composed of sixteen interuemal reproductive pouches and 

 eight peronial double canals, connected with the umbrella margin by an octagonal 

 marginal canal, along with which it forms the " festoon canal." The central gastral 

 cavity is fiat and wide and regularly octagonal in outline (corresponding to the eight 

 tentacle roots and peronial furrows). The cover of the stomach or the upper umbra 1 

 wall is formed by the flat or slightly convex gastral surface of the gelatinous umbrella 

 lens, into which the adjacent tentacle roots (tr) project centripetally as eight supporting- 

 edges. The bottom of the stomach or the lower subumbral wall, consists of a thick layer 

 of circular muscular fibres, immediately connected on their lower surface with the 

 ectodermal epithelium of the subumbrella (w), but separated on their upper surface by a 

 thick supporting plate (s) from the high endodermal epithelium of the stomach. A 

 cylindrical oesophagus (gt) hangs from the middle ; it is nearly half as long as the whole 

 radius of the umbrella, probably considerably longer in the living animal. The 

 oesophagus is nearly as broad as long, and quack-angularly prismatic towards the lower 

 end, where the four interradial longitudinal furrows appear, which divide the four broad 

 bordering oral lobes (fig. 8). 



The coronal intestine, which projects from the periphery of the central principal 

 intestine, is composed of a circle of sixteen reproductive pouches, alternating in pairs 

 with eight peronial double canals, and arises from the octagonal marginal canal 

 along with which it forms the festoon canal. This festoon canal (" canalis festivus ") is 

 homologous with the festoon canal already described in Cunarcha, Polycolpa, and 

 Pegantha, and really consists of eight interuemal " lobe canals," which edge the margin 

 of the eight cmaclrangular collar lobes of the corona of the umbrella. In AZginura, 

 however, the lateral margins of these " collar lobes " are fused into the eight peronial 

 furrows (es), so that each lobe canal is divided into a horizontal middle part (an octant 

 of the marginal canal) and two vertical side limbs (the two inverted halves of two 

 peronial double canals). At first sight a simple " circular canal " appears to exist upon 

 the umbrella margin (PL XIII. figs. 1, 2, 4), which is connected with the stomach by 

 the eight simple broad "radial canals" (as in many Craspedotse, such as the Pectyllicke, 

 Pis. III. -VIII.). In the transverse sections (figs. 7, 12), however, we see at once 

 and indubitably that the eight broad, apparently simple "radial canals" consist of 

 two isolated "peronial canals" (ck) fully separated by the peronium. Each of the 

 two adjacent peronial canals or clasp-canals open independently above (beside the 

 insertion of the tentacles) into the periphery of the stomach, whilst it turns almost at 



