FORBES'S ^QUOREA. 263 



bell But in the genus jEquorea, of the same family, 

 these organs are far more numerous, two species which 

 I first discovered at Ilfracombe having, the one thirty- 

 six, the other about two hundred tentacles. The former 

 of these, which I have honoured with the name of the 

 late Edward Forbes, 1 differs much in general appearance 

 from the little Sarsia, being a cake-shaped segment of 

 a globe, about three or four inches in diameter, and an 

 inch and a half in thickness. The roof of the interior 

 is low and nearly flat, or indeed dropping slightly in 

 the centre. 



The polypite is peculiar, and would scarcely be re- 

 cognised as of the same nature with the lively bottle- 

 shaped organs of the Portuguese man-of-war, or the 

 long nimble tongue of the Sarsia. It forms a very 

 wide circle on the flat roof of the bell, whence the four 

 large triangular lips descend, which are cut into a 

 minutely divided fringe of filaments, that wave loosely 

 in the water. There are about seventy slender vessels 

 which radiate from the polypite circle along the roof to 

 the margin, where they join the circular marginal vessel. 

 T have said that the tentacles are about thirty-six in 

 all ; that is, about half as many as the radiating 

 vessels, though the relation of number is not exact. 



1 ^Equorea Forbesiana; this fine species forms the subject of Plate 

 XXIX. 



