56 SARSIA TUBULOSA. 



5 



opposite the bases of the tentacula. The margin of the sub-umbrella is bounded by a rather 

 broad membranous veil. From its centre hangs the long, cylindrical, fleshy, proboscidiform 

 peduncle, of a blue or lilac, sometimes greenish colour, and fleshy substance. It is highly 

 contractile, being often extended, like a long tube, so as to be twice the length of the body ; 

 sometimes contracted within the bell, and then assuming a bottle shape ; the central part 

 being inflated, and suspended by a slender portion formed by its base. Its fixed point rises 

 conically for a little way* above the summit of the sub-umbrella. The free extremity is more 

 or less claviform, and terminates in a round or indistinctly four-lobed orifice, the lips of which 

 are sometimes everted. The vessels do not appear to run down the peduncle, the interior of 

 which is occupied throughout by the stomach. 



In a note, communicated by my friend Mr. Patterson, he describes the tentacular bulbs, 

 in some specimens met by him at Lame, as exhibiting brilliant crimson ocelli, and the central 

 peduncle as of a dirty pinkish yellow, with a bright crimson spot at its junction with the body. 

 " The peduncle," he writes, " was ever changing its form ; sometimes flung out beyond the 

 body, and then becoming proportionally thin." The animals were from a quarter to three eighths 

 of an inch in length, and other specimens afterwards taken measured two, five, and seven lines 

 in the body. The tentacula extended so much, that on one occasion they measured two inches 

 and a half, by a rule applied to the sides of the glass jar in which they were confined. 



In his " Additions to the Fauna of Ireland," pubHshed in the ' Annals of Natural History' 

 for 1840, Mr. W. Thompson has the following note respecting this species, in which it was 

 first announced as a British animal, though, as I have remarked before, when describing 

 Oceania turrita, it is probable that the Peliscelotus vitreus of Templeton, figured in the 

 ninth volume of Loudon's ' Magazine of Natural History,' was our Sarsia turned inside out. 



"April 11, 1840. I had the satisfaction to-day of identifying with the Oceania {?) tubulosa 

 of Sars a Medusa of which several individuals were brought to me by Mr. Hjmdman, just 

 after their capture in Belfast Bay. On calling the attention of Mr. R. Patterson to them, a 

 reference to his notes on Medusse showed that he had procured the same species at Lame, 

 county Antrim, in May 1835, and June 1838; and again at Bangor, county Down, in July 

 1839. As my friend could not find the species described — Sars's work he had not, for 

 reference — he drew up a detailed and interesting account of the animal, accompanied by several 

 characteristic sketches of it in various positions. Having remarked that one of my specimens, 

 which was in a phial containing one ounce and a half of sea-water, appeared as lively after 

 four days' captivity as at first, although the fluid had not been changed, nor any nutriment 

 added, I, before leaving home for some days, handed it over to Mr. Patterson, that 

 the period the animal would live, under such circumstances, might be noted. From him I 

 learn that this individual lived thus for twelve days (from the 18th to the 30th of April) and 

 that for the first ten, it retained its ordinary vivacity." (Thompson, loc. cit., p. 249.) 



The first time I had the pleasure of seeing this elegant little Medusa, was at Scalloway, 

 in Zetland, where it was taken by Professor Goodsir and myself in 1839. During the month 

 of June in the same year, I met with it again abundantly when dredging with Mr. Smith of 

 Jordanhill, in the Kyles of Bute. On visiting Zetland in 1845, in company with Mr. 

 Mac Andrew, we found it very abundant in the bays and harbours on both east and west coasts. 

 Some we took at Hillswick were exceedingly hvely and active, swimming obliquely through the 

 water with great rapidity. Being kept in a jar of salt water with small Crustacea, they 



