OCEANIA EPISCOPALIS. 27 



1. Oceania octona (sp.), Fleming. 



Plate II, Fig. 3. 



Synonym. Geryonia octona. Fleming, Edin. Phil. Journ., vol. viii, p. 299 (1822). 



British Animals, p. 501 (1828). 



Umbrella smooth, transparent, mitrate, somewhat constricted above the centre, and 

 produced into a conical acuminated apex. Margin with eight elongated yellow tentacula, 

 springing from thick bulbous bases. On each bulb is a minute red ocellus, and an otolitic 

 cavity beneath, with an included vibrating mass. Between each pair of tentacles are three 

 yellow minute tubercles springing from a narrow, yellow, marginal ring. On each tubercle is 

 a minute red ocellus. The central one is largest. Down the sides of the sub-umbrella, which 

 occupies about two thirds of the body, run four wide vessels to join a wide marginal vessel. 

 The upper part of the sub-umbrella has often a lobed appearance. From its centre depends 

 an ample, yellow, vasiform peduncle^ including in its upper part four convoluted bright yellow 

 ovaries. Its orifice is wide, and bordered by four fimbriated yellow lips. I have taken this 

 species off the mouth of the Frith of Forth, where it has also been observed by my friend 

 Mr. Henry Goodsir, and in the seas near the east coast of Zetland. 



It was first noticed and described by Dr. Fleming, who observed it in the sea of the east 

 coast of Scotland in 1821. In his account of an excursion made that year, published under 

 the title of Gleanings of Natural History, in the eighth volume of the ' Edinburgh Philo- 

 sophical Journal,' he describes it as follows : " Having returned from the Bell rock to the 

 vessel, I devoted some time to the examination of the molluscous cargo which I had brought 

 on board. While observing the motions of some of the animals in a glass of sea-water, a 

 Medusa presented itself belonging to the genus Geryonia of Peron and Lesueur. The body 

 was diaphanous, round at the margin, sub-conical at the summit, and slightly acuminated. 

 The central mouth was trumpet-shaped, and shortly pedunculated. The circumference of the 

 body was furnished with eight similar tentacula, equal to its diameter. As it differs from 

 Geryonia dinema and Geryonia prohoscidalis, the only known species, I have named it 

 G. octona.'' (Loc. cit. p. 298.) 



2. Oceania episcopalis, Forbes. 



Plate II, Fig. 1. 



The great fishing-banks which stretch along the coasts of the Zetland Isles, whether 

 eastern or western, are among the most interesting of stations in the British seas for marine 

 researches. The beautiful Medusa which I have now to describe was taken in the neighbour- 

 hood of the western line of bank, forty miles from the mainland of Zetland, in the autumn of 

 1 845. When lying to there, as much in open ocean as if we had been in the very middle of the 

 Atlantic, — the sea calm, though the heavy swell tossed our little vessel to and fro with a motion 

 that would make land-loving naturalists wish themselves on shore, and vow never more to meddle 

 with the wonders of the deep, but keep steadily at their studies among cockchafers and 

 tom-tits, — we were deUghted by the sight of shoals of swimming gelatinous animals, with 

 brilliant purple nuclei, passing in succession near the surface of the water, and having all the 



