52 POFULAll HISTOIIY OF THE AQUAEIUM. 



Ellis; " is found in great abundance on the south-west coast 

 of England^ and seems most curiously contrived^ from its 

 structure, to resist the violence of the waves^ all its joints 

 being furnished with springs. Its vesicles are formed so as 

 to yield easily to every violent impulse of the water, without 

 injury, from their being placed on footstalks like screws/^ 



Laomedea gemculata. 



This Laomedea is a numerously branched polypidom, bear- 

 mg on its fronds the most beautifully delicate, cup-Kke po- 

 lypi, which, by means of their cilia, move about in a very 

 rapid and playful manner. Each polypus is like a tiny 

 shallow glass vase, with a foot by which it is attached to the 

 frond, and fringed with threads all round the disc. Lao- 

 medea gemculata is interestingly described in the ' Devon- 

 shire Rambles \ — " The little creatures [i. e. the cup-shaped 

 polypi] are very active and lively, making their way rapidly 

 through the water by a sort of flapping motion of all the 

 marginal threads together ; an action which, when viewed in 

 profile, could not fail to remind the observer of the flight 

 of a flagging- winged bird : but so exquisitely delicate is the 

 tiny creature, so transparent, so shadowy, that a friend to 

 whom I showed it aptly called it the soul of the Zoophyte. 



