BOUGAINVILLIA RAMOSA. 311 



Forbes^ bad a suspicion tliat the medusa whicli he had liimself described under the name 

 of Buiu/ainvillia liritamnca was related to the FAidendrimn ramosmi of Van Beneden, while 

 ]\rCrady- was also led to refer an allied American medusa to a Ei(dendrmiii-YikG trophosome. 

 Strctliill Wright'^ subsequently believed that he could trace the planoblast of Van Beneden 's 

 Etidendrium ramosum through intermediate stages into a medusa which closely resembled the 

 Bougainvillia Britannica of Forbes, and the relation thus maintained received confirmation from 

 a similar observation afterwards made by Alex. Agassiz * on the medusa of Bougainvillia super- 

 ciliarix, an American species. Though the evidence from which Forbes's Bowjainvilliu Britannica 

 might be referred to the Eiidendriim ramosum of Van Beneden as its proper trophosome is 

 hardly complete, the observations of Wright and Agassiz leave no doubt as to the planoblast 

 of this trophosome being a true Bougainvillia medusa. 



A\"right, having shown that Van Beneden's Eiidendrium ramosum cannot be retained in the 

 genus Eudendrium, constructed for it that of Atracfi/lisJ" It must now be referred to Lesson's 

 genus Bougainvillia, of which, indeed, it may be assumed as the type.^ 



1. Bougainvillia uajiosa, Van Beneden. 



Plate IX, figs. 5—7. 



HippocREN'E Britannica (planoblast), — Forbes, in Ann. Nat. Hist., 1841, vol. vii, p. 8)-, pi. i, 



fig. 2. 

 Eudendrium ramosum, — Van Beneden, Embryogenie dcs Tubulaires, p. 3(5, pi. iv, exclusive 



of syiion3'mcs. Fauue lit. de 13elg., p. 112, pi. 

 vi, vii. 

 Bougainvillia Britannica (planoblast), — Lesson, Acalepbes, p. 291. Forbes, Xakcd-eyed 



Medusse, p, 62, pi. xii, fig. 1. 

 TuBULARiA RAMOSA, — Dcthjell, Rare and Remarkable Animals, p. 64, pi. xi. 

 Atractylis RAMOSA, — Stretkill IVriyht, Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinb., vol. i, p. 469. 

 Margelis RAMOSA, — Affussiz, Contr. Nat. Hist. U. S., vol. iv, p. 314. 



Bougainvillia ramosa, — Allman, in Ann. Nat. Hist, for !May, 1864. Hincks, Brit. Ilydr. 



Zoopb., p. 109, pi. xi.x, fig. 2. 



' ' British Naked-eyed Medusa;,' p. 68. 



- " Gymnophthalmata of Charleston Harbour," 'Proc. Elliott. Soc.,' April, 185". 



' ' Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinb.,' April, 1858. 



^ Agas., 'Contr. Nat. Hist. U. S.,' vol. iv, p. 291. 



= See above, p. 299. 



° The generic name of Marytlis was given by Steenstrup (' Vidensk. Medel.,' 1849, p. 43) to the 

 medusa ^vhich Forbes has described under the name of Bougainvillia Britannica, and Agassiz has 

 accepted the genus Margelis, believing that Forbes's Bour/ainviUia Britannica is generically distinct 

 from the original Hippocrene Bougainvillii of Brandt, for which Lesson founded the genus Bougain- 

 villia. I cannot, however, see in the differences between the two medusa; — dift'erenees which are to 

 he found chiefly in the wider and more rounded form of the manubrium and in the more profuse 

 bifurcation of the oral tentacles of Brandt's species — characters of sufficient importance for generic 

 separation. 



