BIGELOW: THE CTENOPHORES. 373 



This fact, of course, removes the weight from the argument that it 

 would be surprising if the P. pileus of Bermuda were replaced by an- 

 other species at the type locality of bachei. Furthermore " Washing- 

 ton Territory" (Moser, :09, p. 145) is on the west, not on the east 

 coast of North America. 



Moser's discussion of bachei was drawn perforce from the published 

 accounts, which certainly do not contain anything to show that it 

 is not pileus, or at most a local Pacific variety of the latter. I was 

 therefore particularly glad to have the opportunity of testing the 

 validity on a series consisting of one of A. Agassiz's specimens from 

 the Gulf of Georgia of moderate size, three from Puget Sound, 

 one hundred and thirty-one specimens, taken by the "Albatross" 

 off the coast of southern California, and many young specimens in 

 the present collection from Acapulco, west coast of Mexico. All of 

 these agree with pileus of corresponding ages except for the minor 

 features that all have an unusually long funnel-canal, very short 

 tentacular sheaths and bases, and by the fact that the adradial canals 

 open into the meridionals well above the funnel level, that is to say, 

 the characteristics are precisely those noticed by Torrey ( : 04) in his 

 San Diego specimens. All these characters are shown by the young- 

 est specimens, 3-4 mm. high. If we compare them with pileus at a 

 corresponding stage, whether the Altantic (Agassiz, '65) or the 

 Mediterranean race (Chun, '80) the difference is a striking one. In 

 the Pacific example the funnel-canal is proportionately nearly twice 

 as long as in one from the Atlantic or Mediterranean; and the open- 

 ing of the tentacular sheaths and the junction of adradial and meri- 

 dional canals much nearer the aboral pole. The differences do not 

 disappear with growth; but are evident in specimens 10-12 mm. high. 

 By this time the tentacular sheaths and bases have increased in size, 

 growing toward the oral pole; but they lag far behind pileus (cf. 

 Torrey, :04, pi. 1, fig. 1, with L. Agassiz, '49, pi. 3, figs. 1, 2). The 

 funnel-canal is still longer than the digestive tract; whereas in pileus 

 it is usually considerably shorter at all stages. 



Our Puget Sound specimens are slightly larger, our Californian 

 ones slightly smaller, than the San Diego material studied by Torrey; 

 but they agree very well with his figure, except for the length of the 

 ribs which depends on size, as might be expected. But in all, irrespec- 

 tive of contraction (and several are much shrivelled), the funnel-canal 

 is longer than the gastric cavity, and the junction of adradial canals 

 and meridionals lies at a level about half way between funnel and 

 apex. Now, in all the Atlantic and Mediterranean specimens that 



