358 BRITISH NAKED-EYED MEDUSA. 



interesting to see them rise to the top of the high glass jar in 

 which I kept them, — their longer tentacles being stretched out, 

 reaching to the bottom, and then a long piece lying coiled there. 



The grandest and most curious of the rarities which I have 

 met with in Scotland is the one which I am now about to mention. 

 It was first made into a genus by Brandt, from specimens collected 

 by Mortens in the Pacific, when on a voyage round the world, and 

 it was published at St. Petersburg in 1835, as Staurophora Mertensii. 

 Agassiz, in 1849, obtained specimens from Boston Bay, Massa- 

 chusetts, which differed specifically from that found by Mertens ; 

 he named it Stcmropliora laciniata, and described it in a Paper en- 

 titled " Contributions to the Natural History of the Acaleplue of 

 North America." My first specimen I got in the harbour of 

 Peterhead, N.B., and I obtained others off that place at different 

 times during May and June, 1851. In that time they had in- 

 creased in size from -fths of an inch to 3|- inches in leng-th, and 

 from If inch to 4f inches in breadth. Some were larger. At 

 first, like Brandt, I thought they had neither mouth nor stomach ; 

 but this I could not believe. Agassiz has set all doubt at rest, by 

 shewing that it has both, and that they are concealed in the 

 curtain-like folds suspended on each side of the arms which 

 form the cross on the upper part.''^ The disc is bell-shaped, 

 and crossed by four gastro-vascular canals, from which are sus- 

 pended frilled leaf-like curtains ; these appear as if drawn on the 

 canals by a spiral cord ; they are double, beautifully white, and 

 contrast well with the transparent light-blue substance of the 

 body ; and they extend from the centre of the ujDper jiart of the 

 disc to within about a fifth of the length. The edge of the disc 

 is fringed by numerous tentacles, which are curled smartly on the 

 lower part, and are alternately longer and shorter, having each a 

 bulb on the upper part, in which are darkish but rather obscure 

 spots, — no doubt ocelli. It moved, like other Medusce, by con- 

 tracting and expanding its disc ; it was not sluggish in motion, 

 and it assumed a great variety of forms ; in fact, such a Proteus 

 was it, that it would be impossible to figure all its forms. I have 

 merely given two ; one showing it like a cross,t and the other as 



* Plate II, fig. 2. 

 t Plate n, fig. 3. 



