34 DISCOPHOR^. Part III. 



between the lobes, projects slightly in the form of a broad papilla. The proboscis 

 is four-sided {Figs. 24 and 29 a), and the corners {Fig. 29 rt^) project considerably 

 beyond the general outline. The digestive cavity extends by means of broad, 

 straight, shallow channels {Fig. 24 c e) to the base of the lobe, and also to each 

 papilla. At a short distance from the base of the proboscis, and opposite each flat 

 side, a group of four or five digitate bodies {Figs. 24 g and 26 e) projects into 

 the digestive cavity. These are all the features which we have observed at the 

 moment the ephyra is ready to drop from the strobila, and thus we terminate 

 the description of the strobila stage of Aurelia flavidula. 



We have not ascertained, in a direct manner, how the dorsal side (PL XI. Fig. 

 29 I) of the matured ephyra becomes separated from the individual next below it ; 

 but can only suppose, with much probability, that a gradual constriction, from 

 without inwardly, divides the proboscis {2 a) of the lower ephyra at a point which 

 becomes the lip {a}), and which also is in direct contact with the centre {P) of 

 the disk lying above it. This, we say, seems probable, from the fact that the last 

 remnant of attachment is a thin string of matter {l^), which passes from the centre 

 {l'^) of the mature ephyra to the centre of the proboscis {a) of the lower indi- 

 vidual, and is, without doubt, the inner wall drawn out by the struggles of the 

 escaping medusa. Finally, hy repeated contractions and expansions of the disk, the 

 ephyra breaks loose from its attachment and swims away. 



Before we go on to the ephyra state, however, we will point out some curious 

 anomalies of the scyphostoma and strobila stages. Sars, Dalyell, Reid, and others 

 have already illustrated these anomalies more or less in detail; but we have some 

 new ones to present, besides repeating the description of the hitherto known forms 

 for our native Aurelia.^ The most frequent forms of anomaly are the more or 

 less elongated, tentacle-Uke processes (PI. XP. Figs. 3-9 <? c^ c% which arise from 

 various parts of the body, but mostly from the base. They are usually single, 

 but occasionally they are forked, or one develops at right angles from the side 

 of another {Fig. 8 c^ c^). Similar processes develop from the base of the strobila 

 (PI. XI. Figs. 2, 3 c^ c^). Sometimes these processes are terminated by a club- 

 shaped expansion (PI. IX*. Fig. 2 c^), as if a new individual were about to be formed. 

 Most frequently, however, a new individual, when developed by the budding process, 

 springs from the side of the parent without the intervention of a secondary basis 

 (PI. XI. Figs. 19 c^ and 25 r c^). Instead of a single terminal row of tentacles, 

 we find occasionally as many as two or three (PI. XI. Figs. 18 and 21 e), but we 

 cannot say, in these instances, whether the ephyrae had already dropped off, nor 

 that the tentacles precede them: the latter is the more probable, inasmuch as the 



' We have never observed these anomalies in those scyphostomas which we raised from the egg. 



