106 THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 



the opportunity thus afforded of comparing the actinian fauna 

 of the Bermudas with that of the Bahamas, which I had pre- 

 viously studied.* I may state here that, so far as can be 

 judged from the material studied, there is very great similarity 

 between the two faunas, most of the species from the Bermudas 

 occurring also either in the Bahamas or in the West Indian 

 Islands. Unfortunately, it was impossible to adopt the best 

 methods of preserving the material obtained in the Bermudas, 

 the expedition to the islands having been undertaken mainly 

 for geological purposes, and consequently the specific relation- 

 ships of some of the forms could not be determined with per- 

 fect certainty. 



SAGARTIDiE. 



Aiptasia. sp? (PI. 10, figs. 1 and 2.) 



In the collection were four specimens of a form which I re- 

 fer to the genus Aiptasia, inasmuch as in the majority of 

 respects they resemble forms of that genus, although it was 

 impossible to ascertain the i^resence of an equatorial row of 

 cinclides owing to the ectoderm having b^en almost completely 

 macerated away. Nematocysts were -quite abundant in the 

 macerated substarice contained in the inter- and intra-mesen- 

 terial, chambers, bat it was not possible to be certain that they 

 belonged to acontia, though such was probably the case. 



The specimens were about 1 cm. in length and 0.65 cm. in 

 diameter. The color, as ascertained-from the alcoholic ma- 

 terial, is in the upper one-third of the column and in the ten- 

 tacles grass-green, while the rest of the column presents the 

 dirty grayish-brown color frequent in alcoholic specimens. 

 About one-third of the way down the column each specimen 

 presents a well marked constriction, below which the column 

 is cylindrical, while above it gradually expands, the disc not 

 being at all infolded in contraction. The base is evidently 

 adherent, but in two of the specimens it is much smaller than 



*See Journal of Morphology, vol. iii. This paper is now in print and will 

 shortly appear. 



