HYDROIDS AND JELLY-FISHES. 45 



(No. 34). The various individuals composing the 

 community hang down like long bright-colored stream- 

 ers, attached to a bladder filled with air, of the size of 

 a large pear, and not unlike it in shape, with a crest 

 rising above it, sometimes pink or purple, and some- 

 times blue, which catches the wind like a sail, and 

 carries it along like a little boat upon the surface of 

 the sea. From the lower side of the bladder hang all 

 kinds of threads and bags, being as many distinct ani- 

 mals of smaller kinds, but having immensely long ten- 

 tacles, capable of an extraordinary extension, sometimes 

 measuring many yards when stretched to their full 

 length. Nothing can exceed the beauty of these brill- 

 iant little communities as they are seen on the water, 

 with purple crest erect, proudly floating on the surface 

 of the sea, like a miniature ship under full sail. It is 

 for this reason, I suppose, that the sailors have called 

 it the Portuguese Man-of-War. 



This most beautiful kind of Hy- 

 droid belongs to tropical seas, and 

 is rarely found on northern coasts. 

 But we have many varieties of 

 very pretty Hydroids on our rocks 

 and beaches, which you can easily 

 collect for your Aquariums ; all 

 producing their own kind of Jelly- 

 Fish, and this, in its turn, bring- 

 ing forth again the same kind of 

 Hydroid from which it came. Be- 

 sides those I have described, there 

 is one in which some of the buds 

 have somewhat the shape of little No - ** 



