3IO Sou t hey u Cross. 



XIX. HYDROZOA. 



A PEELIMINAEY ACCOUNT, 

 By EDWARD T. BEOWNE, 



University College, London. 



The ' Southern Cross ' specimens arrived whilst I was working through 

 a large collection of Medusae made by Mr. E. Vallentin in the 

 Falkland Islands. The closeness of these islands to the Antarctic 

 Circle led me to make at once a preliminary examination of the 

 'Southern Cross' Collection to see if the medusoid fauna at Cape 

 Adare, where all the specimens had been taken, bore any resemblance 

 to the ]\Iedusae of the Falkland s. I may here say that the ]\Iedusae 

 of the Falklands are closely related to the Medusae of Great Britain, 

 and that the Cape Adare specimens belong to other types. 



It was sad work to open bottle after bottle and to find the 

 specimens more or less macerated and often in fragments. Most of 

 the specimens are absolutely useless, and only a few sliow generic 

 characters. The collection gives just a glimpse of a rich and most 

 interesting medusoid fauna at Cape Adare, and it is unfortunate that 

 more care has not been taken over the preservation and storage. 



It is quite proljable that most of the specimens looked in excellent 

 condition when hrst preserved, and that the miscliief occurred later 

 — maceration through not using sufficient formaline or alcohol, and 

 fragmentation through not tilling up the bottles to the brim and 

 excluding air-bubbles. All the bottles contained a large air space, 

 and most were only about two-thirds full of lluid. For animals so 

 delicate as jelly-tish, using the term in its old and widest sense, it 

 is absolutely necessary to reduce air-bubbles to their smallest 

 dimensions. A large air-b\ibble in constant motion, either througli 

 tlie rolling of a ship or the shaking on a railway journey, quickly 

 reduces such delicate organisms to fragments. 



Formaline is an excellent preservative for Medusae (but bad for 



