PORPITA. 121 



dark brown ; the lateral parts are of a clear blue, and clear rays mark the whole. The blue 

 limb is very narrow. The tentacles are blue, and not clavate, but thicker at their roots; and 

 they have on their outer side only, usually four, and sometimes five, very long-stalked 

 capitula. 



This species, only half a line in diameter, was taken in the North Pacific. Is it an 

 adult ? 



3. PORPITA GLOBOSA. 



The hydrosoma is almost globular. The flat upper part of the pneumatocyst is very 

 small, has only a hne in diameter, a dark-blue colour, and about thirty-two radiating striae. 

 The broad limb is dark blue ; the rest of the body, which consists of the proper globular 

 part, is supported by the distal lamellae of the pneumatocyst, which are greatly elongated and 

 expanded downwards and laterally. The pneumatocyst, in fact, extends even beyond the 

 limb, its sides here inclining downwards and outwards. This part is coloured bright blue, 

 and is marked with a great number of radiating brown lines. The tentacles spring from 

 the broadest part of the body ; they are filiform, and in their larger outer moiety are covered 

 with almost sessile capitula. From the line of their attachment the body contracts again, 

 presenting a convex contour. 



In the only specimen which Eschscholz took he observed a tentacle which, very thick and 

 coloured in the middle, allowed a yellowish juice to be seen through its walls. The stomach 

 and the gonoblaslidia were yellowish — the latter surrounded by a brownish villous ring, out 

 of which fine white filaments hung. This last Eschscholz regards as a germ-receptacle. This 

 species attains three lines in diameter, and was taken near the Cape de Verde Islands. 



It would be very desirable to re-examine this remarkable species. The " brownish villous 

 ring" and the " fine white filaments" seem clearly to be the gonophores and the pneumatic 

 filaments. 



4. PORPITA UMBELLA. 



The proximal surface of the pneumatocyst is flat, colourless, or whitish ; the limb broad 

 and dark blue. The tentacles have short stalked capitula on their outer thicker half. 

 The central polypite and the inner gonoblastidia are white, the outer gonoblastidia are bluisli. 



Eschscholz considers this to be the Forpita gigantea of Peron and Lesueur. It was taken 

 in the equatorial and the temperate parts of the Atlantic, and attains an inch in diameter. 



5. PORPITA CCERULEA. 



The pneumatocyst is quite flat, and has a blackish-blue colour.' Forty-two radiating 



^ For brevity's sake I have used the terra pneumatocyst in these definitions in a broad sense, so 

 as to include the layer of the hydrosoma which overlies it. 



16 



