156 POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM. 



Beroe OVATA. 



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' This pretty little Medicsa is of a different order from the 

 umbrella-shaped Sea-jelly.. Its body is shaped like a 

 melon, from half an inch to three-quarters long, quite crys- 

 talline, and divided into gores by eight ribs. On the ribs 

 are little plates or scales, capable of moving up and down, 

 and acting as paddles, by which the Beroe can move itself 

 freely in every direction. It has two very long pendent 

 tentacles, to which are attached, at regular intervals, still 

 more slender threads, which coil like the tendrils of a vine. 

 These have all the adhesive qualities of the tentacula and 

 filaments of ActinicE, and constitute the fishing-tackle of 

 the Beroe. The whole apparatus, when not in use, is drawn 

 up into the body and lodged in sheaths. 



^' Though at first,"*^ says Landsborough, " we observed 

 only one solitary Beroe, we had not gone far till we found 

 them in abundance. In one Kttle creek there was a flotilla 

 of fifty. What life ! What beauty ! What happiness in 

 that little fleet ! Fifty thousand paddles, of exquisite work- 

 manship, were in rapid, noiseless motion, twinkling with all 

 the mdescent beauty of the morning dew. I had not before 

 observed this lovely iridescence; and I ascribed it in part 



