Section I. 

 Literature and survey of the northern Ceriantharia. 



The first species of Ceriantharia from northern waters was described b\' Gosse (1856) as Ed- 

 wardsia vestita. Two years later (1858) he identified this form with Ceriantliiis n/ni/brai/aceus, a mis- 

 take which he rectified in 1859 when the species received the name it has since retained, Cerianthzis 

 lloydii. A snnnnary of the exterior and Hfe-conditions of the species was given by Gosse (i860). 

 After being observed on the coasts of Great Britain, it was met with in 1861 by M. Sars on the 

 Norwegian coast. Daniel sseu however in Fanna littoralis Norvegiae 1871 expresses the opinion that 

 the form met with by Sars and afterwards by himself is a new species, which he calls Cerianthus 

 borealis^ a name which Verrill however had nsed (1873) for a species described by himself from North 

 America. Carlgren (1893) shews that it had already been observed by S. Loven (1839) on the 

 west coast of Sweden. Hartlanb (1894) found it at Heligoland. 



More or less detailed accounts of this species have been given by Carlgren (1893), v. Beneden 

 (1898) and by Danielssen as early as 1888, though the last-named has referred it to C. borealis. 

 Danielssen's account moreover is written in so peculiar a stj'le and varies so much from all other 

 accounts of the Cerianthidae, that one would be inclined to deny the identification of his C. borealis 

 with C. lloydii^ were not Danielssen's accounts of the Actiniae, as Mc Murrich (1893 P- 133) says, 

 "beautiful examples of how not to do it". According to my investigations however the two forms are 

 one and the same species, as Andres (1883) had already conjectured. 



A small Cerianthid Cerianthus vermicularis Forbes from the Sound is described by Liitken 

 (i860). Andres (1883) has given this species the name of Cerianthus liitkeni. Without doubt this is 

 a young Cerianthid and probably nothing but a young Cerianthus lloydii. It is uncertain how-ever 

 whether Cerianthus verniictilaris (Forbes in Johnston) is so also (Compare Andres 1883 p. 561). 



New Cerianthidae are described by Danielssen (1890) from the Norwegian North-Atlantic Ex- 

 pedition under the names of Cerianthus vogti and abyssoruni. But the descriptions are so incomplete 

 that the classification of the species cannot be made out. As I understand them the two species are 

 identical and fall under the genus Cerianthus. The systematic position also of the species described 

 by Roule (1905), Ceriant/tns lloydii &\\A danielsseni, the former of which to judge from the coloured 

 drawing is not Cerianthus lloydii but probably a new species, cannot be determined. Although the 

 description of the former is so incomplete, it might still be convenient to give it a special name Ce- 

 rianthus roulei. 



