A STJU3A CEA . 1LYA NTHW ^ 



THE VESTLET. 



Cerianthus Lloydii. 



Plate VI. Fig. 8. 



Specific Character. Inferior orifice excentric : septa regularly graduated. 



Edwardsia vestita. Gosse, Ann. N. H. Ser. 2. xviii. 73. 



Cerianthus membranaceus. Ibid. Ibid. Ser. 3. i. 418. 

 Lloydii. Ibid. Ibid. Ser. 3. iii. 50. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 

 Form. 



Column. Greatly lengthened, cylindrical for the most part, but gene- 

 rally swollen at the inferior end into an elliptical bulb, and gradually 

 expanding into a trumpet-shaped summit to about twice the median 

 diameter. No distinct margin, the summit of the column itself dividing 

 into the tentacles, the ridges of which are apparent for some distance 

 below the point where they separate. Inferior extremity pierced with a 

 round orifice, which is placed at one side of the axial line. Mesenteric 

 prolongations of the visceral septa twenty-four, of which one pair are very 

 minute, while the opposite pair extend to the immediate vicinity of the 

 inferior orifice. From the one to the other of these conditions there is a 

 regular gradation in length, but from the longest to the middle pair the 

 diminution is slight, while from the middle pair to the shortest it is great 

 and rapid. 



Disk. A deep funnel-shaped cavity, about twice as wide as the column, 

 entire, circular, not overarching. 



Tentacles. Of two kinds. First series strictly marginal, sixty-four, set 

 in two rows, alternating, but with their bases in mutual contact. They 

 are equal, slender, conical, sharp-pointed, divided more or less conspicu- 

 ously into knobs, by some half-dozen constrictions. Their contour is some- 

 what stiff, and they are generally carried arching upward and outward • 

 but some of the inner row are frequently erect, and others inclined to a 

 point over the disk. Second series remote from the first, crowded, in four 

 irregular circles, springing immediately around the mouth ; filiform, obtuse, 

 cub-equal, not half as long or thick as those of the first series. 



