28 OCEANIA TURRITA. 



aspect of Salpm. On securing some, however, by means of the hand-net, they proved not 

 to be mollusks but Medusae, aUied to, but very distinct from, the Geryonia octona of Dr. 

 Fleming. Mr. Patterson appears to have met with a species very similar, if not identical, at 

 Bangor, County Down. 



The largest of the individuals taken measured an inch and a half long in the body ; its 

 marginal tentacula far exceeding that dimension. The umbrella is very transparent, smooth, 

 and mitre-shaped, its upper part more or less tumid, and at times assuming a sub-globular 

 form, as if the body was crowned by a mobile glass ball. Round the margin are twelve 

 (2x4+4) highly contractile tentacula, with thick bases. These tentacles are of a pale 

 yellowish hue ; between each pair of them are three minute yellowish tubercles, the central 

 one slightly the largest. All these tubercles and all the bulbous bases of the tentacles bear 

 very minute red ocelh (12x3+12=48). Round the orifice of the umbrella is a veil, borne 

 upwards and inwards. The sub-umbrella is conico-cylindrical, and occupies about two thirds 

 of the length of the body. From its centre is suspended an ample urn-shaped peduncle, 

 including in its upper and most tumid part the eight convoluted ovaries, dense, and of a rich 

 maroon purple colour. Four very wide gastric vessels run in the course of the reproductive 

 glands, and proceed down the sub-umbrella to join the wide marginal vessel. The peduncle 

 terminates in a campanulate proboscis, with a wide orifice, surrounded by four fimbriated lips 

 of a pale purplish-tawny hue. 



It is a most active and graceful, but very delicate creature. 



Plate II, fig. 1, a, represents an individual shghtly enlarged : \,h, shows the disposition 

 of the ocellated tubercles between the tentacula. 



3. Oceania turrita, Forbes. 



Plate II, Fig. 2. 



Umbrella campanulate, smooth, transparent, produced above into a long, conical, acute, 

 and mobile process, turned more or less to one side. Margin with four long yellow tentacles, 

 their bases much swollen ; on the bulb of each is a very minute crimson ocellus, composed of 

 a well-defined group of pigment-cells, and in the substance of the bulb below it is a cavity 

 containing a vibrating mass of crystalline particles (calcareous ?), mixed with brown pigment- 

 cells. This, no doubt, is the otoHtic body. Between each pair of tentacles are three yellowish 

 marginal tubercles, with rudimentary ocelli. The sub-umbrella occupies about half the length 

 of the body. Down its sides run four broad vessels to join a wide marginal vessel. From 

 its centre depends a rather short, but wide yellow peduncle, in the upper part of which are 

 four convoluted bright yellow reproductive glands. The orifice of the peduncle is cam- 

 panulate, and bordered by four slightly fimbriated lips. The body measures about half an 

 inch in length. 



When I first caught this singular and active little Medusa, I fancied we had secured the 

 " Piliscelotus vitreui' of Templeton. That anomalous animal, however, I now believe to 

 have been merely a Sarsia tuhulosa turned inside out. The Oceania turrita was taken in 

 the Zetland seas, in 1845. 



Plate II, a, represents this animal much enlarged ; 2, h, the body as seen from above • 

 2, c, the bulb of a tentacle with the red ocellus and the otolitic cell ; 2, d, the peduncle and 

 included ovaries ; and 2, e, the arrangement of the tentacles and tubercles. 



