HYDROIDS AND JELLY-FISHES. 41 



able on account of four crescent-like figures of a rosy 

 or purplish color, so placed as to form a cross in the 

 centre. These are produced by the large accumula- 

 tion of eggs forming these crescent-shaped bunches. 

 Another Jelly-Fish produced in the same way by the 

 division of a Hydroid is much larger, varying in cir- 

 cumference from that of a dinner-plate to that of a 

 large tub (I have often seen one filling completely the 

 largest-sized wash-tub), and with immensely long ten- 

 tacles hanging from it. When one of the largest of 

 these animals is swimming in the sea, its tentacles may 

 stretch out for twenty or thirty feet behind it. The 

 color of this Jelly- Fish is a deep claret, and it is by no 

 means so transparent and delicate as the others I have 

 described. Yet, though it has a great deal more solid- 

 ity, it is soft nevertheless, of the consistency of jelly ; 

 after the autumn storms, it is seen in large numbers 

 strewn upon the beach, like immense cakes of brown 

 jelly. So large a part of the weight of Jelly- Fishes is 

 derived from the water they absorb, that a Jelly- Fish 

 weighing, when taken from the sea, thirty-five pounds, 

 if left to dry in the sun will shrink to a film weighing 

 only half an ounce. All those jelly-like masses which 

 sometimes lie stranded in such numbers along the 

 beach in summer, and which are often called Sun- 

 Fishes, are Jelly-Fishes of different kinds. 



In many of these Hydroid communities, the work 

 is curiously divided between the different individuals. 

 Some are the sportsmen and the feeders of the com- 

 munity. It is their business to catch the prey, and 

 they are furnished with the lasso cells which I described 

 to you in the Anemone. They fling out their long 



