Miscellaneous. 



305 



2. Beroe Cucmnis (Forskallii of Milne-Edwards) was fouud in 

 the same locality in considerable numbers. My friend, Mr. Brooks, 

 found specimens in the month of June of a larger size and more fully 

 developed than those taken by myself in August. Those I found 

 were only 9 lines long and 6 broad — sack- shaped — the upper or 

 broad end having thick lobed lips, closing in a transverse line upon 

 the mouth or upper surface : eight strong vertical bands run from 

 the broad end to the opposite extremity. These bands were without 

 cilia half way down, but from thence they were strongly ciliated to 

 the end ; at the narrow end there is a little bunch of minute, short, 

 arborescent appendages, slightly knobbed at their extremities. The 

 ridge round the broad end was tinctured reddish purple, and the 

 ciliated lobes had a faint line of the same colour. These lobes under 

 the microscope showed a very complex organization, and small glo- 

 bular bodies were observed floating in them. The rest of the body 

 was of crj'stal clearness, and the texture of the animal much more 

 tender and fragile than that of the Cydippe. In the dark these ani- 

 mals, when irritated, gave out a most brilliant and beautiful emerald- 

 green light, illuminating their whole surface, and far exceeding in 

 phosphorescent brilliancy any other I have seen. 



3. Noctiluca iniliaris. This minute zoophyte is now pretty well 

 known to naturalists, though it has not at present found its proper 

 niche in our zoological classifications. It 

 is one of the " Hydrostatic Acalephse," 

 consisting of a small air-bag supporting 

 a very minute flexible active tentacle. A 

 century ago, Mr. Sparshall, of Wells, in 

 this county, figured this animal, and wrote 

 a good paper on it* which he communi- 

 cated to Baker, who has given part of it 

 in his book, entitled ' Employment for the 

 Microscope,' p. 402. Occasional notices 

 of this zoophyte have since appeared in 

 our zoological journals and elsewhere, but 

 the fullest details respecting it are to be 

 found in a paper by M. Suriray, which 

 is given at length in Lesson's volume on 

 the Acalephse, forming part of the ' Suites 

 a Buff'on ' — see p. 145 of that vol. This Magnified view of Noctiluca 

 little animal we have had abmidant oppor- miliaris. 

 tunities of observing upon our eastern coast, for thirty years past. 

 It occurs floating on the surface of the ocean, and is doubtless one of 

 those animals which most contribute, in these parts, to the luminous 

 appearance of the sea by night f. It abounds on the shores and in 

 the harbour of Lowestoft, and we beheve on every part of this coast. 



* I possess a copy of this paper and figui-e, given to me by the late 

 Mr. Sparshall of Norwich, a relative of the author. 



t An excellent paper on this interesting subject by Dr. Pring, of Weston- 

 super-Mare, appeared in the ' Philosophical Magazine ' for Dec. 1849, from 

 which we have borrowed the above woodcut. — Ed. 



