SARSIADiE. 



Genus XIII. Sarsia, Lesson (1843). 



Umbrella hemispherical ; radiating vessels four, simple; no conspicuous ovaries , 

 four marginal tentacles opposite the point at v^^hich the radiating vessel joins the 

 marginal one ; ocelli four, more or less conspicuous ; stomach in a very extensile, 

 cylindrical, proboscidiform peduncle, with a simple orifice. 



This genus was instituted by Lesson for a very remarkable Medusa discovered by the 

 eminent naturalist of Norway, whose name it bears — a philosopher who, pursuing his re- . 

 searches far away from the .world, buried among the grand solitudes of his magnificent 

 country, where the pursuit of science is his recreation, and the holy offices of religion his 

 sacred duty, has nevertheless gained name and fame wherever the study of nature is followed. 

 The unpretending writings of this parish priest have become models for the essays of learned 

 professors in foreign lands, and his discoveries the texts of long commentaries by experienced 

 physiologists. The French naturalist, in seeking to be the first to honour the name of Sars, 

 has done himself honour by his recognition of high and modest merit. With peculiar 

 pleasure, therefore, do I offer a testimony to the value and permanency of the genus before 

 us, by announcing three very distinct species additional to the only recorded type, con- 

 firmatory of the excellence of its constitution. 



1. Sarsia tubulosa (sp.), Sars (1835). 



Plate VI, Fig. 2. 



Synonyms. Oceania tubulosa. Sars, Besk. og. Jagt., p. 25, pi. 5, fig. 11 (1835). 



Thompson, Ann. N. H., vol. v, p. 249 (1840). 



Dujardin, in 2d Ed., Lamarck, An. s. Vert., t. iii, 



p. 165 (1840). 

 Sarsia tubulosa. Lesson, Acaleph., p. 333 (1843). 



This is the type of the genus. The umbrella, which is sometimes nearly an inch in 

 length, is smooth, colourless, and of an oblong hemispherical shape. Its margin bears four 

 equidistant tubercles, of a bluish or purplish colour, each marked with a well-defined dark 

 ocellus. From each tubercle arises a tentacle, lilac, or greenish, or blue, extremely extensile, 

 often elongated to three times the length of the body. The structure when magnified is seen 

 to be moniliform and granular. The sub-umbrella is hemispheric and very convex, divided 

 into four equal parts by as many radiating simple vessels, which join the marginal vessel 



