296 Zoological Society, 



pla7iiuscula, tentaculis plurimis ecc margine inflexo, hranchiis nullisr 

 This notice, which occurs at page 105 of the Swedish edition of his 



* Travels,' is the entire original foundation for numerous references in 

 after-authors. Linnseus, in the first instance, adopted Loefling's name 

 and brief record, which, when read with our present knowledge of 

 Acalephce, barely indicates the genus to which the animal observed 

 probably belonged . In 1 77^, the descriptions and figures of animals 

 observed during his journey to the East by the lamented Forskal were 

 published under the superintendence of Carsten Niebuhr. Among 

 them was a representation and description of a Medusa, referred to 

 the cequorea of Linnseus, both excellent, as indeed may be said of all 

 that Forskal did. In 1776 a Medusa cequorea was noticed, scarcely 

 more than by name, in the * Zoologise Danicse Prodromus ' of Otho 

 Frederic Miiller. In 1 78G, Otho Fabricias, in his excellent ' Fauna 

 Groenlandica,' gives a shorter account than usual with him of a Me- 

 dusa, which he refers to the cequorea of Linnseus. He speaks of it 

 as a very simple animal, smaller and softer than Medusa aurita, con- 

 vex above, concave beneath, with very much inflected margins and 

 white marginal cilia. The two last-mentioned characters are opposed 

 to the notion of Medusa cequorea, as represented and described by 

 Forskal, and the first of them to the slight idea of its shape that we 

 gather from Loefling. In 1791 Adolph Modeer commenced the work 

 of hair-splitting by separating the animal of Forskal, under the name 

 of Medusa patina, from that of Loefling, for which he reserved the 

 name Medusa cequorea. In 1809 Peron and Lesueur published in the 



* Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,' vol. xiv., their important 

 classification and synopsis of all known Medusse. In that paper, ex- 

 cellent though it be, they increase the confusion, by giving the name 

 oi JEquorea atlantica to Loefling's animal, ^q. danica to Miiller' s, 

 j^q. groenlandica to that of Fabricius, ^q. Forshalea to that of For- 

 skal, and ^q. stauroghjpha to a new species of their own, probably 

 identical with all the others. In 1829 Eschscholtz, in his 'System 

 der Acalephen,' attempted to rectify this confusion, by rejecting all 

 these names excepting ^q. Forskalina, that alone having been suffi- 

 ciently described. In 1843 Lesson published his History of Acale- 

 phse in the 'Nouvelles Suites a Buifon,' and, to make confusion worse 

 confounded, rejected all rectifications and restored all the names and 

 imperfectly noticed individuals to full specific rank. 



After attentively considering the notices more or less perfect that 

 the various older observers ha\'Te given, of what they call Medusa 

 cequorea, I am led to the belief that in most instances one species, 

 not several, was met with, and that the creature which I now de- 

 scribe as British is identical with the Medusa cequorea of Loefling, 

 Forskal and Miiller. Since Forskal alone described and figured it in 

 a comprehensible manner, the name JEquorea Forskalea, proposed by 

 Peron, is peculiarly appropriate, the more so since that of Medusa 

 patina of Modeer was proposed under a mistake. Forskal expressly 

 states that his species is common to the North Atlantic and the Medi- 

 terranean, and that it inhabits the Danish seas, where it is called 

 ** Vandmand," that is. Waterman. i i>:iii ■ai'i J;iii. A':):S ,l;1^h 



