70 AMERICAN HYDEOIDS. 



peculiar medusa-form "extra capsular sporosacs" of Hincks, characteristic of the genus. 

 These are globular in general form. Alhnan, in reference to their resemblance to poppy seeds 

 has called these structm-es "meconidia." They are supported on short pedicels which rest ir 

 a plug-like expansion of the blastostyle which fits into tlie top of tlie gonangium. The mecon- 

 idia show four well-marked radial canals, and a cluster of numerous short, finger-hke tentacles 

 is borne on their distal ends. Within these capsules the ova develop into planulse which then 

 escape and lead a free hfe. In the male colonies the spermatozoa are developed from sporosacs 

 within the meconidia. Inside of the gonangium is a blastostyle upon which are often seen 

 the meconidia developing, the oldest one being above and the youngest below. Hincks ' says 

 that the tentacles borne on the male meconidia are smaller and less numerous than those on 

 the female. 



Distribution. — The type-locahty for this species can hardly be determined with accuracy, 

 but was probably on the British coast. It has been reported repeatedly from British shores. Sev- 

 eral Scandinavian locaHties are given — e. g., Norway by Sars; Sweden (Broch, Jaderhohn); 

 Greenland (Levinsen) ; North Sea (Hartlaub) ; Denmark (Levinsen) ; Helgoland (Hartlaub) ; 

 Belgium (van Beneden); Mediterranean (Baboc, according to Jaderholm). 



American records are given for the New England coast by Verrill and Nutting. A speci- 

 men was also sent to the ■wTiter from the coast of Rhode Island by Dr. H. C. Bumpus. The 

 species has not been reported from the Pacific nor from the South Atlantic. 



Bathymetric distribution, 1 to 55 fathoms. 



GONOTHYR.SA GRACILIS (Sars). 

 Plate 17, fig. 3. 



Laomedea gracilis Sars, Beretning om en i Sommeren 1849 forletagen Zoologistk Reise i Lofoten og Finmarken, 1851, 



p. 138. 

 Laomedea {Campanularia) gracilis Sars, G. 0., Bidrag til Kundskaben om middlehavets Littoral-Fauna, 1857, p. 161. 

 Laomedea gracilis Hincks, Cat. of Zooph. South Devon and South Cornwall, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. 8, 1861, 



p. 260. 

 Gonothyrsea gracilis Allman, On the Construction and Limitation of Genera, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. 13, 1864, 



p. 374. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Hincks, On New British Hydroids, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. 18, 1866, p. 299. 

 Campanularia gracilis van Beneden, Recherches sur la Fauna littorale de Belgique, 1867, p. 147. 

 Gonothyrsea gracilis Hincks, British Hydroid Zoophytes, 1868, p. 183. 

 Gonothyrsea gracilis Hincks, Suppl. Cat. Zooph. South Devon and South Cornwall, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. 8, 



1871, p. 80. 

 Gonothyrsea gracilis Verrill, Proc. Amer. Ass. Adv. Sci., 1873, p. 364. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Sars, Bidrag til Kundskaben om Norges Hydroider, 1873, p. 33. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis McIntosh, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. 13, 1874, p. 209. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Verrill, Amer. Journ. Sci., 1875, p. 42. 



Gonothyrxa gracilis Winther, Fortegnelse de i Danmark Hydroiden, 1879-8(7, p. 240. 



Gonothyrxa gracilis Segerstedt, Bidrag til kannedomen om Hydroid-Fauna ud Sveriger Vestkust, 1889, p. 13. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Crawford, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, vol. 16, 1895, p. 260. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Hartlaub, Die Hydromedusen Helgolands, 1897, p. 451. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Hartlaub, Hydroiden aus dem Stillen Ocean, 1901, p. 353. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Billard, Contribution a I'l^tude des Hydroides, 1904, p. 172. 



Gonothyrxa gracilis Hartlaub, Die Hydroiden du magalhaensischen Region und chilenischen Kiiste, 1905, p. 583. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Ritchie, On Collections of the Cape Verde Island Marine Fauna, Hydroids, 1907, p. 503. 

 Gonothyrxa gracilis Jaderholm, Northern and Arctic Invert., pt. 4, Hydroiden, 1909, p. 64. 

 Laomedea gracilis Broch, Die Hydroiden der arktischen Meere, 1909, p. 228. 

 Laomedea gracilis Broch, Hydioidenuntersuchungen, No. 3, 1912, p. 53. 



TropTiosome.^— Colony branched in a sparing and irregular manner, about 8 mm. in height 

 Main stem slender, with 5 to S aiuiulations some distance above each branch origm. The branches 

 and pedicels are abruptly bent upward at their origin, forming an acute angle with the stem or 



' British Hydroid Zoophytes, 1868, p. 183. 



^ Description of a specimen collected near Beaufort, North Carolina, by C. M. Fraser. 



