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PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



[April, 1857. 



LIRIOPE. Lesson. (1843.) Gegenbaur. (1856.) 



Lesson is entitled to no more than the name of this genus, hav- 

 ing, in reality, failed to distinguish it from true Geryonia. It is 

 Gegenbaur's Liriope which I here adopt, and which corresponds 

 to the Geryonia of Forbes. General form resembling that of Eu- 

 tima mira ; the peduncle of similar conical form, terminating in 

 a digestive flower-shaped organ, with four (or six ?) oral leaflets. 

 The sexual organs occupying four or six ( ?) heart-shaped or cir- 

 cular sinuses of the radiate tubes and located in the disk. Ten-- 

 tacula eight, and of two sorts, four long and four short, the short 

 being provided with a series of thread-cell bunches. Concre- 

 tionary capsules of two sorts, a small round vesicle containing a 

 concretionary corpuscle at each of the shorter and complex tenta- 

 cula, and at each of the longer and simple tentacula a double 

 capsule, consisting of two cysts, one above the other, and con- 

 nected by an intermediate (tubular?) thread, apparently a con- 

 tinuation of the membrane of the cysts. 



The embryology of this genus is as yet unknown. The same 

 may be said of Geryonia. Both of them, however, are by no 

 means very distantly related to Aequorea, and this latter has very 

 evident relationship with the Aeginidse, from the form of its diges- 

 tive cavity and mouth, the number of its radiate tubes and con- 

 cretionary capsules. These capsules in Liriope also are unusual 

 in number and complication, when compared with the Eucopidse, 

 and it further resembles the Aequorese and Aeginidse in the re- 

 markable transparency of its uncolored parts. The very large 

 sinuses of the generative organs certainly also remind us of the large 

 lateral pouches devoted to the same functions in Cunina. Still 

 the position of these organs, as well as the form and position of 

 the digestive cup at the end of a proboscidian prolongation, cer- 

 tainly bring us back to the Eucopidas, more especially the genus 

 Tima. The true position of the two genera, then, lies between 

 the Eucopidas and the Aeginidse, and their embryology will settle 

 the question which of these groups they most nearly approach. 



Distribution. — Mediterranean, British Seas, Indian Ocean, (?) 

 Brazil, (?) Carolinian Coast. 



LIRIOPE SCUTIGERA, nov. spec. 



A very transparent and rather small species. Its most distin- 

 guishing character is the great size and circular form of the gen- 

 erative organs. They are four in number, and are so large that 



