480 Mr. P. H. Gosse on the Lucernaria cyathiformis of Sars. 



LII. On the Lucernaria cyathiformis of Sars. 

 By P. H. GOSSE, Esq., F.R.S., A.L.S. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



GENTLEMEN, 



In the 'Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science 5 for this 

 month, Professor Allman has described and figured what he 

 considers to be the Lucernaria cyathiformis of Sars, instituting 

 for it a new genus, under the name of Carduella. I feel sure he 

 was not aware that I had already separated it from Lucernaria, 

 under the generic name of Depastrum, in the f Annals' for June 

 1858, page 419*. 



But I also had found what I supposed to be the L. cyathiformis 

 on repeated occasions at Weymouth, viz. in the spring and sum- 

 mer of 1853. The specimens were in each case affixed to the 

 under surfaces of stones at very low water. I had made careful 

 magnified figures of my specimens, which I forward with this 

 letter. It is manifest that Prof. Allman's and mine do not 

 represent the same species ; and, on comparing each with Sars's 

 diagnosis (as cited by Johnston, Br. Zooph. i. 474, the only 

 reference at my command), it appears that the Orkney species 

 agrees with the Norwegian, while the Weymouth species differs 

 from it. 



The most important points of difference are: 1. the disk in 

 Depastrum cyathiforme is circular and entire, in D. stellifrons 

 (by which name I propose to distinguish the southern type) 

 distinctly 8-angled ; 2. the tentacles in D. cyathiforme are uni- 

 farious and equal, in D. stellifrons bi- or tri-farious and notably 

 unequal ; 3. the tentacles in D. cyathiforme spring from a circle 

 within the margin, in D. stellifrons from the margin or without 

 it; 4. in D. cyathiforme the tentacles are represented as very 

 regularly capitate ; in D. stellifrons the distinction between the 

 pedicle and the head is much less marked, and they are frequently 

 rather clavate than capitate; 5. the hue in D. cyathiforme is 

 represented as brownish-red; in D. stellifrons it was (in my 

 specimens) a dull olive, becoming pale on the disk, and tinged 

 with umber on the body, the tentacles and ovaries white. The 

 disk in D. stellifrons was studded with minute white granules, 

 arranged in eight radiating groups. 



It follows that a new generic diagnosis is needed for this form ; 

 for both the one I had given for Depastrum and the one Prof. 



* In the 3rd vol. of the ' Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires/ just pub- 

 lished (1860), M. Milne-Edwards has given a third generic title to the 

 same animal, viz. that of Calicinaria. 



