sea.

observable, being transparent, and nearly of the colour of the The end of each tentaculum is furnished with two rows of small, globular, sessile glands. The tentacula are of unequal lengths, and continually in motion. Fig. 36. d is the under part: the mouth is situated in the centre, in the form of a little sac. Some of the above, which I kept in salt water for a night, were dissolved by morning; the tentacula and border giving a slight purple tinge to the water, and the brown part falling to the bottom like small grains of sand, leaving a white transparent substance, about the size and consistence of a wafer, floating on the water."— A. M. Remarks. This beautiful creature is a kind of sea jelly (class Radiaires, order Mollosses, section Anomales, Lamarck), and belongs to the genus Pórpita of Lamarck, or to the more restricted genus Polybrachiònia of the Rev. Lansdown Guilding. In the third volume of the Zoological Journal, p. 404., this enthusiastic naturalist has described a species nearly related to the one now figured, which possibly may have been hitherto unnoticed. The centre of fig. 36. b is buff orange streaked with yellowish brown, encircled with a narrow band of China blue, and a broader one of Berlin blue; and from this the arms seemed to radiate. In fig. 36. c the centre is imperial purple, marked with two dark circular bands, and with numerous radiating lines, and bounded by a pale circle, exterior to which there is a China blue line, and then a pale blue circle edged with a neat somewhat indented and scored border. The inferior surface (d) seems imperfectly drawn it is of a wood-brown colour, roughened with numerous small tubercles; the mouth projecting from the centre in the form of a short cylindrical proboscis.

I am inclined to consider this species distinct from the Polybrachiònia Linnæàna of Mr. Guilding. In the latter, the glands on the arms are stalked, and more diffused along the margins; in ours, the glands are sessile, and almost confined to the summits. There are some differences in colour, which are obviously, however, of no importance; and the absence of the proper tentacula from the ventral surface, in fig. 36. d, cannot be reckoned upon as a distinctive character, as it is probable they have been broken off when the creature was captured. Whether it is the same as the Pórpita glandífera of Lamarck, I have not the means of determining. N.

"Fig. 37. e is a magnified representation of f. In this the tentacula were less numerous, 4-partite at the end, each division being furnished with only a single gland. g is the magnified representation of h, furnished with a transparent inflated sac; tentacula the same as e and f. These were all taken up in lat.

3° 8' S., and long. 25° 52′ W.; and I believe them to be all luminous. Upon disturbing the water in the dark with the finger, the water gives out sparks, the same as observed in the sea." A. M.

Remarks. The centre of e is greenish blue, marked crosswise with eight darker lines, and with an octangular spot in the middle. The inner circle is indigo blue, and the outer one greenish blue, scored with darker lines. The arms are a faint blue, obtaining a deeper tint in the glands. The circular band in g is greenish blue.

From the exact similarity of the arms, it is obvious that these figures represent the same species of sea jelly; and I suppose it is referable to the same genus as the preceding. If this supposition be admitted, g must be drawn in a reversed position; for the "transparent inflated sac" is the mouth in a state of inflation, and the mouth in all these animals is inferior. There are some of the regular Medusa, e. g., Equòreæ and Dianæ æ, which have a clear gelatinous body, similar to g; but Mr. Mathews's comparison of it to a sac, and the fact that the Polybrachiònia has a purse-shaped and extensile mouth ("os inferum, centrale, bursiforme, extensile," Guilding), along with the arrangement of its glanduliferous arms, incline me to consider this animal as a Polybrachiònia, which cannot be better named than by denominating it, in honour of its discoverer, P. Mathéwsii. N.

"Fig. 38. l is very commonly met with at sea: m is the under part, showing its mouth and tentacula. It also possesses the power of stinging, similar to the Portuguese man of war." - A. M.

Remarks. The figure agrees exactly with Lamarck's

description of the Velélla scaphídia of Péron and Le Sueur (Hist. Nat. des Anim. sans Vert., vol. ii. p. 482.) Velélla is a genus of irregular sea jellies, which stands between Physàlia and Pórpita; and the species here figured, apparently with great accuracy, is one of the most beautiful and remarkable of its family. The dorsal crest is thin and transparent, spread out like a fan, lightly tinted with blue and pink, and the base marked with stripes and spots of green, blue, pink, and yellow. The back is of a uniform China blue, a little clouded with darker streaks, rivalling the corollas of the dwarf or vernal gentians [Gentiana acaúlis L., and G. vérna L.] in vividness of colour. The ventral surface is azure blue, or ultramarine, except the oblong space in the centre, which is a wood-brown, and appears to be roughened with numerous small tubercles or suckers. The tenta

39

39

cula originate from the blue por-
tion of the ventral surface: they
are very numerous, linear, and
short, and of a fine blue colour.
It is to be regretted that Mr.
Mathews has told us nothing of
its manner of swimming, &c.
N.

"Fig. 39. k is a beautiful little thing. It is described in

*See a good figure and description of Physàlia pelágica, the Portuguese

man of war, in Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iv. p. 475.

the third English edition of La Pérouse's Voyage, and is also figured in the volume of plates." — A. M.

Remarks.I have no opportunity of referring to the work just mentioned; but the figure represents a gasteropodous molluscum with naked branchiæ, belonging to the genus Glaúcus of Cuvier. One species has been long known and frequently figured it is the G. hexapterygius; and no one has mentioned it without some expression of admiration at its

elegance and beauty. [G. hexapterygius was figured in last Number, p. 237.: for conspection's sake, the cut is here repeated, fig. 40.] The animal now figured (fig. 39. k), is equally elegant and charming. The dark lines, the spots on the head, and the filaments of the branchiæ, are of a fine azure blue colour, while the rest of the body is tinted with pale blue and pink. It differs from the hexapterygius in having only two pairs of fan-shaped branchiæ, and the filaments in each are much fewer in number; and these characters, I think, determine it to be the Glaucus tetrapterygius of Rang, which, so far as I am aware, has not been previously figured.

*

"Pauca hæc vidimus operum Dei!"

[We have seen these few of the works of God.]

April 10. 1833.

N..

Besides the figures given above, and so ably explained by "N.," Mr. Mathews sent three others, lettered a, i, j. Of these "N." thought it unnecessary to engrave or notice that lettered a, which appears to be only b with its central part more enlarged; and on i and j he remarks, "I believe them to be only pieces of an animal." This information may be useless to our readers generally, but will not be so to Mr. Mathews, who closes his letter with this remark: "In this part of the world, books are among the scarcest articles, especially books on natural history. I have therefore been unable to ascertain if they (the figures sent) are all known, or if they have been published. I should feel obliged to any contributor who has the means of ascertaining their names, to inform me of them through the pages of the Magazine of Natural History, the receipt of which, in this part of the world, is one of the greatest treats to me." Repeated notices of the rich gathering of Messrs. Mathews and Bridges, and other collectors in South America, are registered in parts viii. and ix. of Hooker's Botanical Miscellany; and at tab. xcvi. (part viii.) is figured that plant, Mathéwsia foliòsa, which Messrs. Hooker and Arnott have named

ART. IV. Illustrations in British Zoology. By GEORGE JOHNSTON, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

THE specimen here delineated of this beautiful species of Medusa, or sea jelly, was taken in Berwick Bay on the 27th of September, 1832, floating on the surface of the water, in which it moves by alternate contractions and dilatations of the circumference of the body. Our figures represent it of the natural size, the first (a) being a view of it when looked on from above; the second (b) when looked on from below. It is a semiglobular mass of a perfectly translucent and almost colourless jelly, divided, by four opake milk-white narrow ligaments, or bands, into four equal compartments. These bands arise at

the angles of the mouth, and are at first very fine, but become broader and somewhat curled in their course towards the upper surface. The very delicate membrane investing the body is folded at the margin, which is furnished with a circle of rather distant tapered white tentacula. In our specimen there were thirteen of these. The under side is produced in the middle, so as to form a kind of stalk, at the apex of which is the mouth, of a square form, and encircled with four white plumose branchial appendages. When magnified, these are shown to be formed of a thin membrane, beautifully but irregularly folded like a frill, and edged with a neat thickened border.

Dianæ a Bairdii seems to be invested with two membranes of great tenuity. The outer one covers all, like as it were a a glass inverted over a smaller globe, the intermediate space being occupied with a consistent but colourless jelly, in which neither vessels nor membranes can be distinguished. This

(p. 140.) in honour of Mr. Mathews. On tab. cii. (part viii.) is figured Bridgèsia spicata, which Messrs. Hooker and Arnott have named (p. 168.) in honour of Mr. Bridges.-J. D.