J4 Mr Patterson on a Species ofBeroe 



touch will cause a tentaculum to be drawn back into its tube, 

 with a sudden jerk : at other times it is apparently unfelt. The 

 heroes never seemed poised, or supported in the water by their 

 tentacula. In one instance, however, they were extended to the 

 "bottom of the vessel, where they seemed to act as suckers, and 

 formed fixed points, whence the animal rose and fell at pleasure, 

 and appeared as if moored by these delicate and novel cables ; 

 the mouth being retained in the usual erect position. - 



The ovaries of the specimen described by Dr Grant, " con- 

 sisted of two lengthened clusters of small spherical gemmules, 

 t)f a lively crimson colour, extending along the sides of the in- 

 testine and stomach.*" In above 200 of the Irish heroes exa- 

 mined by me, these crimson gemmules were totally wanting. 

 ^t first I thought their absence might be accounted for by the 

 difference of season at the time the observations were made, Dr 

 Grant's being in September, while mine took place in May, 

 This idea proved to be erroneous : for I had opportunities of 

 examining parcels of heroes taken in Larne Lough, on the 3d 

 of June, the 14th, 22d, and 24th of July, the 20th of August, 

 and the 14th of September, and in no instance did they differ, 

 in any particular, from those observed the preceding spring. 



Lamarck observes, " Les heroes sont tres-phosphoriques ; ils 

 -brillent pendant la nuit, comme autant de lumieres suspendues 

 dans les eux ; et leur clarte est d''autant plus vive que leurs 

 movemens sont plus rapides." Dr Macartney'^s notice of B. 

 fulgens {Phil. Trans. 1810, p. 264), shewed the luminous pro- 

 •perty belongs to some of the species found on the British coas*. 

 It does not, however, seem to prevail universally; at least in 

 all the observations I have been enabled to make, I have never 

 in even one instance been able to detect its presence. The 

 species of beroe taken at Larne is also found in the Lough at 

 Belfast; and specimens precisely identical have been shewn to 

 me by Robert Ball, Esq. of Dublin, which were taken by him in 

 August last, in the bay outside of Kingston Harbour. They 

 are, therefore, found diffused over a considerable range of the 

 eastern coast of Ireland. 



Tlie numerous particulars now mentioned, especially those 

 relating to the number and structure of the cilia, and the form 

 and situation of the sheaths of the tentacula, seem to me to 



