Prof. Forbes's Retrospective Comments. 41 



whose opinion on these matters is of much more consequence 

 than mine, takes a similar view of the too hastily constituted ge- 

 nus Echinocorium with that which I have here advanced. 



II. In the 51st Number (Dec. 1841) there is a short paper 

 sent by me from Pares, containing an account of two remarkable 

 Marine Invertebrata inhabiting the il^gean. To these animals I 

 then abstained from giving names, fearful of carelessly multiplying 

 synonyms in the absence of the works necessary for consultation. 

 To one of them, the zoophyte of the family ActiniadcBj I have 

 now given a distinctive appellation. 



M. de Quatrefages, one of the few zoologists of France who 

 make the natural history of their country a favourite study, tread- 

 ing in the honourable path of Milne Edwards, has lately published 

 many admirable memoirs on the marine animals of the Channel 

 in the 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles.^ In the number for 

 August 1842, he has described and figured three new polypes 

 allied to Actinia from the sea near Granville, and has constituted 

 a genus for their reception. To this well-founded and carefully 

 studied genus does my curious tube-making polype from the 

 -^gean belong. I rather rejoice that I did not bestow a generic 

 name on the creature when I wrote the paper above referred to, 

 inasmuch as it must now rank as a species oi Edwardsia, M. Qua- 

 trefages having given that worthy name to his genus. As the 

 animals he describes may probably be found on om* own shores, 

 I transcribe their diagnoses, as well as his generic character, for 

 the use of British observers. 



Corpus liberum, vermiforme ; pars media plus minusve epidermate 

 opaco incrassata ; pars anterior pellucida, tentaculis ornata ; poste- 

 rior autem vitrea, rotundata, basi vix instructa ; utraque exsertilis et 

 retractilis. 



Intestinum rectum, mesenterio interrupto suspensum, posterius 

 large apertum, duabus partibus compositum ; sinus octo posteriori 

 intus eminentes quibus pendent totidem ovaria, usque ad extremum 

 abdomen producti. 



1. E. Beaut empsii. Ore terminali in extremitate papillee subconicse, 

 circum basim tentaculatse ; tentaculis 14 — 16 uniseriatis parte 

 media subpolygonali ; epidermate crassa, opacissima, fulva ru- 

 bente. Long. 6 — 7 cent. 



2. E. timida. Apice piano, tentaculis 20 — 24 uniseriatis circum - 

 dato ; parte media vix subpolygonali ; epidermate tenui paululum 

 translucida, fulva. Long. 6 — 7 cent. 



3. E. Harassi. Papilla terminali rotundata, tentaculis 24 biseriatis 

 ad basim circumdata ; parte media cylindrica ; epidermate crassa, 

 opacissima, obscure fulva. Long. 5|- cent. 



The Paros species adds a fourth to the genus. I propose for 



