Notes on Meduse of the Western Atlantic. I4t 
and were found on examination of the washings. The towings were made 
just before sunset. The moat was visited next day, and careful search 
failed to bring to light any specimens. A mass of the filamentous alga was 
pulled up from the bottom and put into a separate jar. The water in the 
jar was soon observed to contain several of the minute meduse, but great 
was my surprise to find, after returning to the laboratory and allowing the 
jar to stand for a short time, not a few individuals only, but nearly a hun- 
dred in various attitudes on the surface of the glass or amongst the weed. 
The exquisite appearance of the delicate creatures, their tentacles fully 
extended and interlacing at the tips, was most striking. Examined with a 
lens, the tiny bubble-like bell was seen to stand upright, sturdily braced 
upon the stocky pillars of the tentacles, which spread out at an angle with 
the perpendicular so as to give an absurdly stable foundation to this frail 
body. At the base of each tentacle a speck of color was displayed, the 
ocellus, red-brown in hue. Exquisitely slender threads extended out radially 
from the tips of the tentacles, each one branching into several similar 
threads, and all strung at intervals with glistening beads of nettling cells. 
These little organisms reminded one of nothing so much as the finest frost 
tracery.* 
Swimming reactions—And yet, this diaphanous delicacy of appearance 
is coupled with remarkable activity when the creature releases its hold 
upon its foundation and sets out to swim. It is only when disturbed, or 
when the light conditions effect a stimulus which is transmitted from the 
eye-spots to the nervous system of the medusa that the swimming reactions 
are to be observed. The most of the time the creature holds fast to its place 
in the weed, the long slender manubrium swaying about, apparently in 
search of food. The behavior of Cladonema suggests that of, Gonionemus 
in many respects, and one of these is the habit of reacting ‘to the light- 
stimulus, or to some impulse of a kindred nature, and going through a series 
of vigorous swimming reactions for a longer or shorter period in the morn- 
ing and at dusk. It seems to require an extra effort on the part of Clado- 
nema to break loose from its moorings and set out upon its periodic quest for 
food. The cause of this apparent inertia may possibly be the unusual 
heaviness of the apparently frail body. 
When setting off, the jelly-fish makes one or two spasmodic attempts to 
pull itself away, then suddenly shoots off at a great rate, sometimes leaving 
behind a speck of tissue from one of the adhesive processes. The tentacles, 
“1 The ei and vigorous activity of Clndosenn are Sali ees = Vv an 
Beneden (1866, Rech. sur la Faune litt. de Belg.: Polypes) : “ Rien n’est gracieux comme 
un Cladoneme nonchalamment étalé au milieu de son bassin, fuyant devant quelque 
danger imaginaire ou réel, ou solidement tapi par ses ventouses pour résister au 
courant, pendant qu'il étale soigneusement ses longs cirrhes dans toutes les direc- 
tions. On peut rester des heures entieres en contemplation devant ces organismes 
infimes, qui semblent moins solides qu’une bulle de savon, et qui se conservent cependent 
en dépit des vagues, des chocs et des tempétes.” 
