76 PELAGIA. 



opening at its inner side entering the cavities of the body in which we find the dVaries. These 

 are four in number, shaped hke horse-shoes or half-moons, of a bright purple colour. They 

 are the four purple crescent-like marks which shine through the disk of the jelly fish as we 

 see them swimming in the water. In some monstrous varieties they become united, and form 

 a circle round the disk, or are multiplied, or, more rarely, aborted. The disk often measures 

 nearly a foot across. It is very minutely granulated ; when more coarsely so than usual, we 

 have the variety which has been called A. granulata. The specific names rosea, Surirea, 

 Uneolata, radiolata, purpurata, are all so many synonyms of the Aurelia aurita ; and, 

 judging from the description, the Biblis Aquitanice of Lesson was, in all probability, nothing 

 more than this common Medusa cast high and dry on the sands ! It is everywhere abundant 

 around our coasts, and sometimes occurs in vast numbers, impeding the course of boats 

 through the water. Figures of it may be found in the Zoologia Danica, in the Berlin Trans- 

 actions for 1837, and in the commemorative edition of the Regne Animal. 



2. A second species of Aurelia, for which I propose to retain the name Campanula^ 

 occurs abundantly in Southampton water, and some other confined localities. It appears 

 to be the Medusa campanula of Otho Fabricius, and is a much more delicate animal than the 

 Aurelia aurita, differing from it also in size, proportions, and ocelli. The umbrella is much 

 more shallow, and never attains one fourth of the dimensions. The margin and arms are 

 fringed with white tentacles, so that when the animal is seen in the water it appears as if 

 conspicuously marked by a white cross. The ovaries are of a pale or tawny purple. The 

 egg-shaped bodies of the ocelli are white, with a red spot above. This is probably the Medusa 

 cruciata of some authors. There is no figure of it published. 



Genus Pelagia, Peron and Lesueur. 



3. Until the autumn of 1826, no example of Pelagia had occurred in the British 

 seas ; in August of that year, several specimens of the Pelagia cyanella, one of the most 

 beautiful and phosphorescent Medusse of the Atlantic, were taken by Mr. M'Andrew and 

 myself, off the coast of Cornwall. The disk is sub-globose, and measures nearly three inches 

 across. It is tinged with a rich rose colour, and is speckled over, especially at the sides, by 

 small orange warts. Its margin is scalloped' into sixteen lobes, from beneath eight of which 

 spring as many highly contractile, purple, tubular tentacula, and in the notches of the other 

 six, are eight red, protected, pedunculated ocelU. From the centre of the sub-umbrella hangs 

 a thick peduncle, which soon divides into four lanceolate, winged and furbelowed, rose- 

 coloured, orange-spotted arms, nearly four inches in length. Around the bases of the arms 

 are the openings above the four purple ovaries. A full description and figure of this beautiful 

 species, will be found in the Annals of Natural History, vol. xix, p. 390, pi. 9, fig, 5. 



When the Pelagia phosphoresces, it seems like a great globe of' fire in the water, an 

 appearance familiar to those who have sailed on the coast of Italy, where animals of this 

 genus are common. 



