PUGET SOUND NEMERTEANS. 195 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



The forms here described were collected by the writer while 

 a member of the Columbia University expeditions of 1896 and 

 1897 to Puget Sound and Alaska. During the first of the sum- 

 mers spent on the Pacific coast about 10—15 different forms 

 were collected, all from the region about Port Townsend, Wash- 

 ington. The work of the second summer added about i 5 Alas- 

 kan forms to the collection, besides three additional species 

 from Puget Sound. 



Upon the return the writer lost by shipwreck not only the 

 Alaskan material, but all the previously prepared sections and 

 much valuable literature, together with manuscripts including 

 notes upon the color, form, habits and habitats of the living 

 animals. The consequent necessity of replacing the literature 

 and resectioning the entire set of forms has, as may be readily 

 understood, greatly delayed the publication of the specific de- 

 scriptions. 



The collections were made with the view of accumulating 

 material for a monograph of the Nemerteans of the Pacific coast 

 of the United States, and it is hoped that the present brief notice 

 will be followed by a more extensive work with colored plates. 

 The special interest attaching to certain of the forms {e. g., Cari- 

 nouia), as well as the general importance of the formal pecu- 

 liarities of heretofore unexplored regions, will, it is hoped, prove 

 a sufficient excuse for the publication of the present paper. 



The species here described do not represent the entire num- 

 ber collected, since, in addition to those lost by shipwreck, sev- 

 €ral have been omitted in which the material was either too 

 poorly preserved or too scanty for adequate determination. 



As regards terminology, Montgomery's term ('96) mesen- 

 chyme will be used to designate that tissue formerly known as 

 "parenchyme," " body-parenchyme " and ** gelatinous tissue." 

 The four vascular trunks of the mesonemerteans will be distin- 

 guished as dorso-lateral and ventro-lateral vessels ( = respectively 

 " Rhynchocolomseitengefasse " and " Seitengefasse " of Biirger, 

 ^' supra-proboscidian-sheath-vessels " and "blood vessel" of 

 Oudemans). 



