254 J- Playfair Mc Murrich, 



Family Boloceridae McMürrich, 1893. 



Bnnodidae (pars) Gosse, 1800. 

 Antheadae (pars) Kwitniewski, 1896. 

 Äctiniidae (pars) Haddon 1898, 

 Liponemidae -j- (?) Pohjopidae Hertwig, 1882. 

 7 Sideraciidae Dakielssen, 1890. 



Actininae with an adhereüt base. Coliimn wall smooth or witli 

 Verrucae, biit never with lioUow vesicular outgrowths. Sphincter 

 endodermal, diffuse or rarely circumscribed. Tentacles constricted 

 at tlie base and readily detacliable, fluted and usually provided 

 with a sphincter muscle. Margin simple, without acrorhagi. Mesen- 

 teries arranged in several cycles, of which more than one is perfect ; 

 longitudinal muscles usually diffuse; parieto-basilars and basilars un- 

 equally developed. No acontia. 



The genus Bolocera was established by Gosse in 1860 with 

 the Actinia tucdiae of Johnsto:n (1832) as its type. Gosse, how ever, 

 placed his new genus in the family Btmodidae, although Johnston 

 (1838) had transferred his species to the genus Anthea and Gosse 

 (1858) had concurred in the transference. This species has since 

 been frequently described from European waters and in 1873 Veerill 

 identified with it a form occurring in deep water off the Atlantic 

 coast of North America. We possess, however, no anatomical des- 

 cription of the type with which to compare the American form and 

 it is consequently impossible to say at present whether the two are 

 really identical, although they will probably prove to be so. 



In a Supplement to his Actinologica Britannica Gosse (1860) 

 referred to the genus another species which he named B. eques. 

 Different opinions have prevailed as to the true affinities of this 

 form; Verrill (1869) suggested that it might be identical with 

 ürticina crassicornis, an idea which was subsequently revived by 

 CuNNiNGHAM (1889) who identified it with TeaJia tubermlata (Cooks), 

 and was opposed by G. Y. & A. F. Dixon (1890). I am of the 

 opinion that Verrill and Cunningham are in the right in the 

 matter, especially since, as Professor Verrill has found, ü. crassi- 

 cornis occasionally is hexamerous. 



In 1879 Stuber described what is really the second species of 

 the genus, B. Icerguelensis, a form which has since been studied by 

 KwiBTNiEwsKi (1896), and in the same year Verrill described 



