216 Miscellaneous. 



Who first found Balanoglossus ? Bv the llev. Canon 

 XoKMAX, M.A., D.C.L., E.k.S., &c. 



I find that with respect to Cavolini's figure I have lighted on a 

 " mare's nest." Professor Jeffrey Bell has consulted that author's 

 posthumous work, and tells me that " on p. 2f>6 there is a descrip- 

 tion of Tav. ii. (marked in Atlas ii. and xiv.) thus : ' fig. 1. Fi^sofora 

 hijvga . . . . gli ovari spirali d ; fig. 4, ovario spirali ; ' " and that " at 

 p. 342 the species is stated to be the Ai/amolpsis (sic) CavoJinil of 

 Delle Chiaje " *. What Cavolini calls the " ovario spirali " — which I 

 took to be a figure, natural size, of a Brdanor/lossus — is, in fact 

 (using Hicckel's terms), the greatly magnified pedicle, cnidoband. and 

 terminal filament of a tentillum of a Siphonophoridan. I have con- 

 sulted all the chief works on the Siphonophorae, but cannot meet with 

 a figure which represents the anterior portion of a tentillum with 

 such a collar and proboscis-like outline as is drawn bv Cavolini ; 

 the figure most like on the whole, perhaps, is the illustration of the 

 tentillum of Forshcdia tJioloides, Ha'ckel (Report 'Challenger' 

 Siphouophoraj, 1888, pi, x. fig. 23), or that of Stephanom'ni amphi- 

 tridis, Huxley ('Oceanic Hydrozoa,' 1859, pi. viii. fig. 8), where 

 what he calls the "involucrum" must, I conclude, correspond with 

 the collar-like portion of Cavolini's figure. In mistakin^ly supposing 

 that Cavolini's figure was life-size and represented a B<d((nor/Jos:stas, 

 the chief difficulty in the way of identification was the greatlv 

 produced and coiled termination : but it occurred to me that in life 

 this part might be capable of greater elongation than had been 

 represented in figures, and that, moreover, the old author might, in 

 this respect, have drawn somewhat on his imagination. It is worth 

 any one's while who is interested in Bal(nioijl assets to look at this 

 figure of Cavolini, and see the curious resemblance as regards the 

 general form of this microscopic organ of a Siphonophoridan and 

 the facies of a Balanoglossus. 



Buriimoor Rectorv, 

 Jan. G, 1894. 



* On pi. clxxxi. of Chiaje, Anim. invert. Sicil. cit., are figures taken 

 from Cavolini's figs., thou<rli not exact reproductions, fig. 4 (tig. (.5 Ciiiaje) 

 especially being much reduced in size, and tlius not so luurli siniulatmg 

 £al(uio(/}ossus. I do not see any reforeiioe to these figures in the text. 

 On the plate, fig. 3 (fig. 1, Cavolini) is called Pln/ssopfmrd bijntjn ; tigs. 4-6 

 are not referred to. 1 may add that there is uo reference in Ihvckel's 

 Bibliography or List of known Siphonophora' (Keport 'Challenger' 

 Siphonoi)iu)r;\3) either to Cavolini or Chiaje's SiciUau wurk, nor is the 

 uanie reierred to in Cams, Faou. Prod. Medit. 



