BOUGAINVILLEA. 61 
qui unit et vivifie’*—the triune powers manifested in each and every being, in each single 
and all combined, are revealed as clearly in our little Sarsia, as in the mightiest monster of 
the ocean, beneath whose shadow it may swim invisible to the unarmed eye. And when we 
behold how its perpetuity in that ocean is secured, we are tempted to explain with Spenser— 
“ Wonder it is to see 
How diversly Love doth his pageaunts play, 
And shewes his powre in variable kinds.”+ 
Plate VII, fig. 3, a, represents Sarsia prolifera of the natural size; 3, d, magnified ; 
3, €, its peduncle; 3, d, a tentacle, with the ocellated bulb at its base, and a gemmule beside 
it; 3, e, to 3,7, gemmee in various stages of development. 
Genus XIV. Bovuearnvitiea, Lesson (1829). 
HiprocreEne, Mertens (1835). 
Umbrella spherical; ovaries in the form of four equal lobes, on the sides of the 
short peduncle; margin of the umbrella, with four fasciculi of tentacular bulbs, 
sending forth one or many tentacles, each fasciculus opposite one of the four single 
radiating vessels ; stomach shorter than the sub-umbrella; mouth with four rami- 
fying tentaculated lips. 
This very remarkable group was first strictly defined by Brandt from the drawings and 
notes of Mertens, who had recognised its generic value, and assigned a name to it in his 
manuscripts. Lesson, who appears to have been the first naturalist who observed any species 
belonging to it, had equally perceived its importance, and claims priority for the name which 
he gave, dedicating it to the honour of the distinguished French voyager, Admiral 
Bougainville. Both Lesson and Brandt appear to have met with the same species, the 
former, in the bays of the island of Soledad; the latter,in Behring’s Straits. I had the good 
fortune, in 1839, to add a second and representative form, inhabiting the North Atlantic. 
Since then a third has occurred, and it is not improbable that before long many species may 
be discovered of this beautiful genus, seeing that its characters are peculiarly susceptible of 
specific modifications. Dr. Gould mentions one as occurring on the coast of the United 
States. 
The peculiar structure of the lips in the species of this and the following genus, appears 
to bear some relation to the grouping of the marginal tentacula in fascicles, and to constitute 
a character of sufficient value to cause in the end the establishment of a family distinct from 
Sarsiada, for the reception of Bougainvillea, Lizzia, and a genus as yet undefined, of which 
the Medusa described by Rathke, under the name of Oceania Blumenbachii, is the type. 
* Lamennais, Esquisse d’une Philosophie, B. v, ch. 1. 
+ Faerie Queen, canto v. 
