STUDIES ON PHYSALIA PHYSALIS (L.) 



PART 1. NATURAL HISTORY AND MORPHOLOGY 



By A. K. Totton 



British Museum (Natural History) 

 (Plates VII to XXV, text-figures 1-3 1) 



INTRODUCTION 



although much of this story is technical, it is hoped that it may be of interest to laymen, sea- 

 A farers and voyagers as well as professional zoologists. So it will be as well to explain that the 

 Portuguese man-of-war is a sort of jelly-fish. People often ask 'why Portuguese? ' It was the Portu- 

 guese, in the time of Henry the Navigator, who had fleets of the then curious, new, light ships called 

 caravels. Between 1420 and 1552 they were exploring half the maritime world, and their characteristic 

 fore-and-aft lateen sails were well known to all seamen. I think it must have been the possession of a 

 fore-and-aft sail or crest, and the way in which Physalia* heads into the wind, a fact which no sailor- 

 man could fail to notice, but one which is certainly not observed in these days, that led seamen in the 

 latter part of the fifteenth century to call these animals ' caravels ' or ' Portuguese men-of-war \f The 

 seamen who took Sloane to Jamaica in 1687 were still doing so; but in these days of steam and diesel 

 engines the name seems to be half-forgotten. Australians call the animals 'Bluebottles', and the 

 Spaniards of the Canary Islands ' agua viva '. 



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 



I have to thank the Trustees of the Percy Sladen Trust for a grant which made my work at Arrecife 

 possible. It was entirely due to the kindness and hospitality of the Administrator of the Parador 

 Nacional, Senor Don Jose Juarez Sanchez-Herrera, who showed keen interest in the work and went 

 out of his way to satisfy every want, that a laboratory was arranged on his very convenient premises. 

 It was one of the few places on the island where running water, hot and cold, and easy access to sea- 

 water were available. Suitable boats were difficult to find, but Senor Don C. Martinez Cabrero was 

 kind enough to lend his dinghy fitted with an outboard motor. 



I also wish to thank Dr G. O. Mackie for his valuable co-operation in the field, and Dr Helene 

 Bargmann for help in the arrangement of this report. 



MATERIAL AND METHODS 



The specimens, on which the morphological facts described in this memoir are based, derive partly 

 from the Discovery Collections, but chiefly from those collected, anaesthetized and preserved in 



* Physalia must not be confused with a smaller blue, floating, crested polyp Vellela, also very well known to seafarers, 

 which is only two or three inches long. 



f When I was trying to get permission to take some official photographs of the Portuguese man-of-war, so unfamiliar to 

 the layman was this popular English name, that it was necessary to explain to the authorities that the object was of a zoo- 

 logical and not of a nautical nature. 



