152 BOUGAINVILLE^. 



Family BOUGAINVILLE^ Liitk. 



BougainvillecB Lutk. ; in Vidensk. Med., p. 29. 1849-50. 

 BougainvilUdce Gegenb. ; in Zeit. f. Wiss. Zool., p. 220. 1856. 

 Hippocrenidce McCr. Gymn. Charl. Harbor, p. 56. 

 BougainvilUdce Agass. Cont. Nat. Hist. U. S., IV. p. 344. 1862. 

 Eudendroidce Agass. Gout. Nat. Hist. U. S., IV. pp. 282, 342. 1862. 



BOUGAINVILLIA Less. 



Bougainvillia Less.; in Ann. des Sc. Nat., V. 1836. 



Hippocrene Mert. ; (Preocc. Moll.) in Mem. Acad. St. Petersburg, p. 229. 1835. 



Hippocrene Agass.; in Mem. Am. Acad., p. 250. 1849. 



Bougainvillia Mertensii Agass. 



Bougainvillia Mertensii Agass. Cont. Nat. Hist. U. S., IV. p. 344. 1862. 



Hippocrene Bougainvillei Br. {non Less.) ; in Mem. Acad. St. Petersburg, p. 293, PI. 20. 1838. 



If the Hydrarium, collected at San Francisco, is the Hydrarium of 

 BougahwiUia Mertensii, there can be no doubt of the specific difier- 

 ence between it and Bougainvillia super ciUar Is Agass. It grows quite 

 luxuriously, attaining a height of nearly two and a half inches ; the 

 stems are very stout, particularly the main branch, which near the 

 base is exceedingly robust ; the branches are at least three times as 

 stout as those of the Hydrarium of our Bougainvillia, which is slen- 

 der, and always branches quite loosely. In the California species the 

 branches succeed each other rapidly, and are crowded on the sides of 

 the main stem. This would seem to prove that this species, like the 

 Coryne rosaria, is the representative on the Pacific coast of its eastern 

 congener, and that neither the Coryne mirabilis nor the Bougain- 

 villia superciliaris are circumpolar species, like the Toxojmeustes dro- 

 bachiensis. 



This species is undoubtedly the Hippocrene Bougainvillei Br. which 

 Mertens found at Mathaei Island, in Behring's Strait, and which is 

 figured in the Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburg for 1838, 

 Vol. II. The ramifications of the tentacles surrounding the actinos- 

 tome are very numerous, and the eye-specks at the base of the mar- 

 ginal tentacles small. The spherosome has a slight bluish tinge ; the 

 chymiferous tubes, the tentacles surrounding the mouth, and the mar- 

 ginal tentacles, are straw-colored ; the base of the tentacles is yellow- 

 ish-brown. This species is much larger than either Bougainvillia su- 

 jjerciliaris or B. macloviana ; it was quite common during the summer, 

 in the harbor of Port Townsend, at the northwest boundary, in the 



