SOLMISSUS. 63 



authors, they need not be described here further than to note that a long 

 proboscis is developed very early, whereas the tentacles remain short and 

 rudimentary until after the young medusae have been liberated (PI. 45, 

 fig. Ji). This feature is probably of specific significance. The smallest liber- 

 ated medusa, represented in PI. 45, fig. ^, has six rudimentary tentacles. 

 The marginal lappets are already of considerable size, and each bears, on its 

 margin, two prominences, the young otocysts. The proboscis is very long. 

 Three views of a larger medusa, about .5 ram. in diameter, are shown in 

 PL 45, figs. 5, 6 (from a photograph), and 7. The bell is now propor- 

 tionately much broader, though the gelatinous layer is still very thin. 

 The number of tentacles is now eight. There are two otocysts per lappet, 

 each connected with an otoporp (PI. 45, fig. 7). Peroniae are as yet hardly 

 visible. The velum is well developed ; and the proboscis still long. There 

 is no trace of any peripheral canal system, nor are any gastric pockets as 

 yet developed. 



The identity of this stolon with C peregrina seems not unlikely, because in 

 the only other related species, Cunodantha incisa, taken during the expedition 

 which lacks a canal system a single median otocyst appears first in each lap- 

 pet, the lateral otocysts being developed later (p. 53). 



A second Cunina stolon (PI. 27, fig. 8) was taken from the stomach of a 

 Solmiindella bitentaculata. Unfortunately this stolon, which certainly belongs to 

 a different species from the one just described, was not far enough advanced 

 for even provisional identification. The buds in this case are nearly globular 

 in outline and have no distinct proboscis. The tentacles, on the other hand, 

 appear soon after the earliest formation of the bud, and are very long in the 

 larger buds. In development a single tentacle first appears, and this may 

 reach a considerable length before the rudiment of a second appears. In 

 larger buds there are four, five, or six tentacles, six being the largest num- 

 ber observed. In one bud the bell margin is already marked as a ridge 

 connecting the tentacles but there are as yet no traces of otocysts. 



Solmissus Haeckel, 1879. 

 sens. em. Maas (:04*). 

 Cunanthidae without peripheral canal system or otoporpae. 

 This genus was instituted by Haeckel ('79) to include Cunina albescens de- 

 scribed by Gegenbaur ('56), and the two new species, S.faheri and S. bleekii, 

 which he himself described ('79, pp. 350, 351). So far as I can learn, only two 



