74 DUBLIN UXIVKi; 



tinia. All the species which it includes are of a gelatinous consistence, 

 and more or less campanulate in form, having the narrow extremity 

 of the body attached to submarine objects by means of an adherent 

 disc, while the opposite (or oral) aspect is surrounded by numerous 

 short tentacula arranged in tufts round the margin of a saucer-like 

 cavity, in the centre of which the mouth is situated. 



Five species have been recorded as inhabiting the shores of Bri- 

 tain, viz. : — 



1st. L. auricula. — This species is provided with eight tufts of ten- 

 tacula, placed at equal distances from one another, and having a marginal 

 tubercle between each pair. The adherent disc is situated at the ex- 

 tremity of a short peduncle. The colour is exceedingly variable. 



2nd. L. campanulata. — The arrangement and number of the tenta- 

 cular tufts is the same as in L. auricula, but the tentacula in each of 

 them are more numerous, and the marginal tubercles are absent. The 

 adherent disc is separated from the body by a cleft or stricture. The 

 colour is greenish-brown. 



3rd. L. fascicular is, which has the margin surrounded by eight 

 tentacular tufts arranged in pairs. The peduncle is long and wrinkled, 

 terminating in a narrow adherent base. The colour is dark-brown. 



4th. L. cyathiformis. — In this well-marked species the body is goblet- 

 shaped, and the tentacular tufts are placed round the interior of the 

 margin over which they slightly project. In the four remaining Bri- 

 tish species they occupy the extremities of the produced marginal lobes. 

 The peduncle is corrugated, and of equal length with the body. Its ex- 

 tremity is dilated into a flat adherent disc. Its colour is greenish or 

 dusky brown. 



5th. L. inauriculata, which differs from L. fascicular is in having the 

 eight tentaculiferous lobes equidistant from each other ; from L. auricula, 

 in the absence of any ear-like appendage at the middle of the border of 

 the connecting webs between these lobes ; from L. campanulata in the 

 absence of the "two series of foliaceous processes arranged on each side of 

 a white line," extending from the sides of the mouth along the middle 

 of each connecting web ; and from L. cyathiformis in the tentacles being 

 supported in clusters, at the extremity of lobes produced beyond the 

 margin of the infundibular disc. 



Some add a sixth British species, L. quadricornis, but this is usually 

 considered to be a variety of L. fascicularis. 



