REPORT ON THE ACTINIARIA. 21 



former possesses but one stomidium, the latter apparently must be provided each with 

 two or three, — an inference confirmed by dissection. Since it is the rule amongst 

 Actinise that the development of tentacles precedes that of mesenteries, we can also 

 infer in this instance from the plentiful development of stomidia, an imminent addition 

 to the mesenteries. 



Genus Aulorcliis, n. gen. 



Ijiponemidse, whose generative organs are modified into a tube perforating the oral 

 lip ; gonidial grooves on both sides drawn out into a long ear-like cone. 



AulorcMs paradoxa* sp. n. (PI. I. figs. 9, 10 ; PL III. figs. 2-6 ; PI. IV. figs. 1-6). 



Stomidia arranged in two alternating rows, approximately sixty in number. 



Habitat.— Station 299, December 14, 1875; lat. 33° 31' S., long. 74° 43' W.; 

 depth; 2160 fathoms. One specimen. 



Dimensio7is.— Height, 4 cm. ; greatest breadth (measured about half-way up the 

 animal), 3 cm. 



Among the accessory Challenger Actinise occurs this form, of great iiiterest as 

 enlarging by a new genus and new species the group of forms devoid of tentacles. 

 Unluckily, I have had but the one solitary specimen for study, and even this was badly 

 preserved, and had apparently sufi'ered much from the dredge. It was exceedingly 

 contracted ; oral and pedal discs were externally unrecognisable, since both ends of the 

 body-wall were closely drawn together. As a natural result of this condition, I have 

 not been able to clear up many important points of the organisation so well as I could 

 have wished. For investigation, I divided the specimen longitudinally, and dissected a 

 sextant with scalpel and scissors, arriving at the following results. 



The strongly contracted, and therefore small, pedal disc exhibit^i indistinct radial 

 brownish wrinkles and furrows, and is sharply marked off from the body-wall, the 

 surface of which is smootli. The latter is of a whitish tint, and nf inconsiderable thick- 

 ness, only here and there becoming more powerful, but never forming hooks or papillae. 

 Its consistence is less firm than that of cartilage, but considerably more so than that of 

 Medusan mesogloea. The tissue is of a fibrous nature, composed of very fine fibrils, 

 which arc generally interlacing and retiialate. At many points, however, they are 

 thicker and bound together in more p;i;allel series, so that cords and lamella; are 

 formed, which, though staining brilliantly with carmine, are not sharply difi'erentiated 

 from their surroundings. These lamellae are ranged parallel to the two surfaces, and 

 run constantly closer to one another till a firmly united mass of fibres is formed just 

 below the epithelium. At other points, however, the fibres are more loosely plaited, so 

 that spaces remain between them, which arc filled up by homogeneous mesogla;a. 

 In some places I detected hollow spaces iu the tissue, which were devoid of an epithelial 



