No. 8. — Report on the Dredging Operations off the West Coast 
of Central America to the Galapagos, to the West Coast of Mex- 
ico, and in the Gulf of California, in charge of ALEXANDER 
AGASSIZ, carried on by the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer 
“ Albatross,” during 1891, LIEUT. COMMANDER Z. L. TANNER, 
U.S. N., Commanding. 
XXIV. 
Preliminary Report on Branchiocerianthus urceolus, a new Type of 
Aetinian. By E. L. Markt 
ONE of the most interesting of the many new forms brought up in the 
dredgings of the Albatross Expedition under Mr. Agassiz in 1891 was « 
deep-sea actinian which bore so strong a resemblance to Cerianthus in 
its general appearance that the sketches made at the time are marked 
“new Cerianthus.” An examination of the superficial characters shows, 
however, as Mr. Agassiz (91, p. 187) at once recognized, that this new 
form differs in important points from the genus Cerianthus, and may 
indeed require the erection of a new family for its reception. Its two 
most striking morphological features are a pronounced bilateral sym- 
metry and the possession of an incomplete circle of branching gill-like 
organs. The latter peculiarity I utilize in proposing for it the new 
generic name Branchiocerianthus. 
A considerable number of specimens were taken at cach of two hauls 
in the Gulf of Panama, not far from Cape Mala, at Stations 3385 and 
3389, the depths being respectively 286 fathoms and 210 fathoms, and 
the bottom being in both instances green mud. The colors, as shown by 
the colored sketches drawn at the time by Mr. Westergren, were brick- 
red for the column, deep carmine for the marginal tentacles, and rose- 
pink for the oral disk, and all the structures arising from it, including 
the oral tentacles. The specimens were all preserved in strong alcohol. 
1 Contributions from the Zoölogical Laboratory of the Museum of Comparative 
Zovlogy at Harvard College, E. L. Mark Director, No. XCII. 
VOL. XXXII. — NO. 8. 
