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III. 



A LIST OF IRISH CCELENTEEATA, INCLUDING THE 

 CTENOPHORA. 



By jane STEPHENS, B.A., B. Sc. 



Being a Report eeom the Royal Irish Academy Eauna and Eloea 

 Committee. Communicated by R. E. Schaeff, Ph.D. 



[Read February 27 ; Ordered for publication March 1 ; 

 Published April 8, 1905.] 



The first account of Irish Coelenterata was published just one 

 hundred and fifty years ago, when John Ellis, in his " Essay towards 

 a Natural History of the Corallines and other Marine Productions of 

 like kind commonly found on the Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland," 

 described and gave beautiful figures of several Calyptoblastic Hydi'oids 

 and a species of Gorgonia found on the Irish coast. Eighty-one years 

 later, in 1836, Templeton, in the "Magazine of Natural History," 

 recorded a number of species from Ireland. A. H. Hassall, in 1841, 

 drew up a "Catalogue of Irish Zoophytes"; most of his specimens 

 were collected in Dublin Bay. William Thompson, in the fourth volume 

 of his " Natural History of Ireland," 1856, gives a list of 102 species, 

 about twenty of which, however, are not now considered recognised 

 species. This is the most recent list containing an account of all the 

 different classes of the Coelenterata. About this time G. J. Allman, 

 J. R. Greene, and E. P. Wright worked, respectively, at the Hydroids, 

 Medusae, and Sea-anemones. Of late years Dr. Duerden has added 

 largely to the records oi Irish Hydroids, Prof. Haddon to the Actiniae, 

 and Mr, E. T. Browne to the Medusae of the south-west coast. 



The following list contains about 250 species, excluding many 

 doubtful ones. The parts of the coast which have been best worked 

 out are the north-east, east, and south-west ; while the north-west still 

 remains neglected, and many of the commonest species have not yet 

 been recorded from it. 



With Mr. A. R. Nichols' kind permission, I have followed his 

 definition of the Irish marine area, and his division of the coast of 

 Ireland into the six provinces which he has adopted in his reports on 



R. I. a. PROC, vol. XXV., SEC. B.] J) 



