﻿April, 1857.] 



ELLIOTT SOCIETY. 



205 



afterwards became medusa-bearing capsules, I saw nothing to 

 warrant me in believing, since there were no signs of incipient 

 buds on the stems, within the tubular celJs. However, this nega- 

 tive observation is no proof to the contrary. 



in. circeaDjE. Forbes. 



Form in general deeply campanulate, digestive trunk more or 

 less elongate, with unusually deep and tubuli form digestive cav- 

 ity, for the Sub-order. Mouth provided with labial tentacula. 

 Radiate tubes probably of variable number. Sexual glands vary- 

 ing also from two to six. Tentacula numerous, short and very 

 contractile. Marginal capsules present, but on account of their 

 small size and great transparency, their number and symmetric 

 arrangement is not yet ascertained. 



Development unknown. Is it from a free larva ? 



Remarks. — Forbes is as silent with regard to the marginal cap- 

 sules in Circe as in other genera, yet their presence in the follow- 

 ing allied genus, would make their entire absence in Circe an ex- 

 traordinary peculiarity, and therefore improbable. The Circeadss 

 appear to me not distantly related to the following group, that of 

 Geryonidse. 



PERSA, nov. gen. 



General form like Circe, but broader in proportion to its height. 

 Digestive cavity, colorless, elongate, nearly sessile upon the top 

 of the bell-cavity, instead of being at the end of a proboscidi form 

 appendage. Mouth with four labial appendages. Radiate tubes, 

 eight? Sexual organs, two, massive, oblong, cylindrical glands, 

 in which I did not discover any sinus of the radiate tube. These 

 glands hang free in the cavity of the bell. Tentacula numerous, 

 very short or absent. Concretionary capsules probably eight in 

 number, four large and four small, alternating with each other; 

 small, sessile and containing a single corpuscle each. There 

 appears to me to be the same amount of difference between this 

 genus and Circe, that exists between Eucheilota and Eutima. In 

 the three specimens taken, I made great efforts to determine the 

 exact number of radiate tubes and of the marginal capsules, 

 (which latter are of that peculiar type seen in the free capsules of 

 Liriope,) but I was unsuccessful. Of radiate tubes I saw only 

 two with any approach to certainty, and these were those which 

 bore the two sexual glands. 



Distribution. — Charleston Harbor. 



