THE fairy's cap. 387 



the bell was only one line broad; and yet the tentacle 

 was even then corrugated, and seemed capable of 

 almost indefinite prolongation. What is curious, too, 

 is that they were stretched perpendicularly upward, 

 and not pendent. 



THE fairy's cap. 



The elegance and beauty of the smaller Medusa 

 have been celebrated by poets and naturalists, and 

 have sometimes excited the latter to use the enthusi- 

 astic phraseology of the former. Here is a tiny 

 species, which I venture to think any one looking at 

 it, or even at the magnified figure of it in Plate XXVI, 

 will not hesitate to pronounce one of the gems of the 

 sea, though I will not presume to back it against that 

 lovely atom, of which Professor Forbes affirms that 

 "there is not a Medusa in all the ocean which can 

 match it for beautv." 



I have met with only a single specimen of the 

 species, which was taken in a rock-pool near the 

 Spout-holes at the base of Capstone-hill, on the 29th 

 of August. The following characters distinguish it. 



Saphenia Titania. Umbrella somewhat pear- 

 shaped or campanulate, the summit round, and 

 crowned with a largish cylindrical cap of colourless 

 membrane, sometimes falling into folds, but capable 

 of enlargement by inflation. (Fig. 8). It is connect- 

 ed with the sub -umbrella, which is parallel and 

 almost equal with the umbrella in all its dimensions. 

 From it depends a parallel-sided peduncle reaching 



about two-thirds down the bell, composed of four 



