﻿Dec. 1856.] 



ELLIOTT SOCIETY. 



57 



peduncle is quite different in form. The stomach surrounded by 

 the ovaries occupies the lower half, but above is a mass of very- 

 large cells filled with a clear substance like that in the upper part 

 of the disk in Oceania. This portion is traversed by the four 

 ascending chymiferous tubes, around which the large cells are 

 arranged with much regularity, and which, on reaching the mus- 

 cular disk, arch over to descend through its substance as vertical 

 tubes. A structure like this has been described in the Larva of 

 Cephea, by Dr. A. von Frantzius. — (Vide Siebold und Kolliker, 

 Zeitschrift f. Wissenschaft. Zoolog. iv. Bd., 1 Hft, 1852.) His 

 figures are very good. Thus the stomach of Turritopsis is in the 

 end of a proboscis as in Geryonia and Tima, the difference be- 

 tween it and Oceania or Turn's, in this respect, reminding us of 

 the difference between those two genera and Thaumantias. One 

 other feature ought also, perhaps, to be noticed — it is the smooth- 

 ness of the tentacula, which are composed of a central axis of 

 large coin-shaped cells, invested with a cellular coat or sheath, in 

 which are scattered thread-cells, these, however, increase in number 

 towards the extremity, which is clavate and crowded on all sides 

 with thread-cells. The bulb, with the lassos hanging from it, is 

 represented in PI. 5, fig. 11. It will be observed from the descrip- 

 tion, that these tentacula, the ocellary bulb excepted, are extremely 

 similar to those of many hydras. Probably on account of the po- 

 sition of the ocelli they are scarcely ever allowed to hang down 

 for more than a few seconds, and that only in active swimming. 



The remaining characters are like those of Turris. The circu- 

 lar muscular tissue is of a high order of development, resembling 

 strongly that represented by Prof. Forbes in Turris. The four 

 sexual lobes are opaque, so that the outline of the stomach cannot 

 be seen. They are, however, not convoluted. The mouth is pro- 

 duced into four leaflets bordered by little bunches of thread-cells, 

 a pair of which are represented in PI. 4, fig. 12. There is no bulb 

 at the junction of the vertical and peripheral tubes. 



It will be seen, at once, that this is not improbably generically 

 identical with the Oceania pusilla of Gosse, figured in his work, 

 entitled u Rambles of a Naturalist on the Devonshire Coast." Un- 

 fortunately, few details of that species are given, and, in all proba- 

 bility, his specimen was young, having only twenty-one tentacula, 

 besides being very small. The character of the tentacula, the po- 

 sition of the ocelli, and their mode of carriage, all agree with those 

 features in the species of our harbor. There also appears to have 

 8 



