(b) _Marginal Pockets._ The part of the peripheral portion of the
gastro-vascular system in each quadrant which is called the stomach
pocket extends downwards as far as the sensory niche. Here by the coming
together of the walls of the exumbrella and subumbrella the space between
them is obliterated (Fig. 15) in the immediate perradius. From the
sensory niche downward to the margin each stomach pocket is thus divided
into two smaller pouches, the marginal pockets (_mp_). In each side of
the Cubomedusan cube there are, then, in Charybdea two marginal pockets;
or in all eight, a characteristic of the family Charybdeidæ. The marginal
pockets as the name implies extend downwards to the bell margin, and are
continued into the velarium as the velar canals. Of these (Fig. 3) there
are two from each marginal pocket, or sixteen in all. The constancy in
their number is one of the characteristics that distinguish C. Xaymacana
from the very closely related C. marsupialis of the Mediterranean.
(Compare Fig. 3 with the similar one by Claus for C. marsupialis, ’78,
Taf. I., Fig. 6.) The forked shape, while to be sure the common form in
C. marsupialis, is an almost invariable characteristic in C. Xaymacana.
It may be mentioned again that the presence of these canals is one of the
chief features that distinguish the velarium of the Scyphomedusæ from the
velum of the Hydromedusæ.
(c) _Canals of the Sensory Clubs and Tentacles._ The four interradial
definitive tentacles and the four perradial transformed tentacles, the
sensory clubs, are hollow, and their canals communicate directly with
the peripheral part of the gastro-vascular system. The canal of the
sensory club in each quadrant leads directly out from the stomach by a
somewhat funnel-shaped opening formed by the approximation of the two
walls of the stomach pocket. The relation of the canal of the sensory
club to the stomach pocket is seen at a glance in Fig. 37. It is given
by means of cross-sections in Figs. 12-14. Figure 12 shows the inner
walls of the stomach pocket approaching the outer at two points, leaving
between them a concavity freely open to the rest of the stomach pocket
above and at the sides. Fig. 13, a little lower down, shows the two
walls fused together at two points, making the interspaces a definite
canal communicating with the stomach pocket above only. This canal lies
directly over the sensory niche, and in the next figure (No. 14) the
canal is seen to have passed through the roof of the sensory niche and to
have entered the base of the stalk of the sensory club. In the enlarged
end of the club, the part which bears the sensory structure, the canal
widens into a terminal ampulla-like sac.
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