144 ACTINLE OF ALBATROSS EXPLORATIONS M^ MURRICH. 



A foAv words are necessary regarding' the affinities of tliis form. It 

 ditlers IVoni all other jicnera of the llalcainpida' by its adherent base 

 and by the large iniiiiber of tentacles which it possesses. Actinopsis 

 possesses the same characteristics, althougli the tentacles are mueb 

 longer in ])roportiou, bnt differs in having a eonchnhi. There is reason 

 to doubt, however, whether Acfiiiopsis can be referred to this family. 

 Among theniembers of the family, however, indications of an adherent 

 base are found, as m Eloadis prodvcta, and the imi)ortance of this char- 

 acter seems to be far outweighed by the small nuTuber of the nu'seii- 

 teries and the structure of their muscles. It seems tolerably certain 

 that the Halcampids are the simplest and probably the most primitive 

 of the Ilexactinia', and the ]>resence of longitudinal muscle fibers in 

 the ectoderm of the column wall of Halvurias is a i)rimitive character- 

 istic. I think, on the whole, that it is to be regarded as much more 

 nearly related to the Halcampids than to any other family of Hex- 

 actinia?. 



Genus PEACHIA, Gosso. 



Halcampida>, with rather shoit tentacles, few in number; with four 

 j)airs of narrow sterile mcscnteiies, situated in the lateral and sulco- 

 lateral iiitennescnteiial s]>a('cs, and six i)airs of perfect fertile mesen- 

 teries; and wit^i a single deej) sii>hon()glyiihe. Longitudinal muscles 

 of the mesenteries strong. Conchula i)resent. 



(losse ('55) instituted this genus for the reception of P. hastata and 

 Jlidcanipa chrysauthellum, later on, however (oS), removing the latter 

 form to the genus tt» which it is now universally assigned. Andres 

 ('8.>) emjdoys, instead of (Josse's name, that proposed by Koren and 

 Banielssen ('56), iSij)hoii(ictinia, hnt the term proposed by Gosse has un- 

 doubtedly the ])riority, as Had<h>n points out ('84). Tn his revision of 

 llic r.ritish Actinia', Haddon (\S9) gives a detinition of the genus some- 

 what more precise than that given above, inclmling certain peculiarities 

 which seem likely to prove s])ecitic rather than generic. If they are re- 

 tained the form described b«>low and iSipluniactinia Boeclii would be ex- 

 cluded from the genus, to which they seem naturally referable. Kather 

 than establish a new genus lor their reception, I prefer to extend 

 somewhat the limitations of the genus Pcachia. 



4. Peachia koreni. sj). nov. 



ri.wi, I'ij:. K). 



No. 954. Station, 27til. l.itt.. otl tl>' S., long., .W 23' W. Deiith, lU fftthoms. One 

 s])orinien. 



The single specinu'u of tliis species (PI. xxi, Fig. 1(5). which I dedicate 

 to Prof. Koren, to whom, in collaboration with J*rof. Danielssen, we owe 

 the Fauna Litoralis Norvegia^, is evidently closely related toi'. {ISiphon- 

 actinia) Boeclii (Kor. et Dan.). 1 regret that I can not give as complete 

 a descrii)tion of it as 1 should like to do. owing to a disinclination to 

 mutilate the sole example obtained. 



