eS . 
Having now enumerated and described those naked-eyed Medusze, which have come 
under my notice* in the British seas, I shall proceed to offer a few remarks on their systematic 
relations with other animals of their class, and on the affinities of the Pulmograde Acalephe, 
with the members of other sections of Radiata. But before I do so, I think it best for the 
convenience of my readers to enumerate very briefly the higher or Steganopthalmatous 
Pulmograda, known to me as inhabiting our coasts, in the hope of directing attention to the 
study of the larger species, which afford fine materials for original research. I look forward 
at some future time to describe and figure them in a companion Monograph to this, but require 
many more observations and drawings before that can be done in a satisfactory manner. 
Being so much larger than the subjects of this volume, they are much more familiar to 
frequenters of the sea-side; and as several of the species are gregarious and very generally 
distributed, they present good opportunities for the acquirement of a knowledge of the 
structure of Medusz in general. Every person who has been in a boat ona calm day, or 
looked over the side of one of our harbours when the tide was flowing in summer, must 
have seen large transparent gelatinous disks, with frmged margins, contracting and expand- 
ing, making their way beneath the surface of the water. All who have walked much 
along the wet sands when the tide is out, must have met with great pads of transparent jelly, 
marked in the centre with purple circles, or edged and rayed with brown. The latter, when 
handled, sting severely ; the former are harmless. They are the two most common kinds of 
covered-eyed Medusz, members of the genera Aurelia and Cyanea. The following brief 
notices will enable the reader to distinguish between our native species of Pulmograda 
Gymnopthalmata. 
Genus AuRELIA, Peron. Mepusa, Eschscholtz. 
1. To this genus belongs the commonest of our native species, the Aurelia aurita, a 
hemispherical, translucent, bluish, gelatinous disk, margined with a close fringe of fine 
filiferm tentacula, interspersed at eight points by as many ocelli, each composed of an egg- 
shaped, pedunculated, black body, with a red speck above it. The sub-umbrella is marked 
by numerous radiating vessels, dichotomously dividing and most of them anastomosing in their 
course towards the margin. Sometimes these vessels present a deep purple hue, and then 
we have the spurious species durelia lineolata of Peron, 4. radiolata of Lamarck, and 
Medusa purpurata of Pennant. Borlase first noticed this variety, and correctly considered it 
such, and not distinct from the ordinary form. Four long arms, with membranous and 
fringed edges, spring from the centre of the sub-umbrella. In the middle of them is the 
mouth. In particular states of the animal, the fringes and margins of the arms serve as 
marsupia for the eggs. Between each pair of arms is a raised cartilaginous tubercle, with an 
* Notices of doubtful or imperfectly described forms, will be found in the Bibliographical 
Appendix. 
