Chap. III. DESCRIPTION OF CYANEA ARCTICA. 89 



alternate with four masses of folds, hanging like rich curtains, loosely waving to 

 and fro, and as they wave, extending downwards, or shortening rapidly, recalling, 

 to those who have had an op2:)ortunity of witnessing the phenomenon, the play 

 of the streamers of an aurora borealis. All these parts have their fixed position ; 

 they are held together by a sort of horizontal curtain, which is suspended from 

 the lower surface of the gelatinous disk. This horizontal curtain is itself connected 

 with the disk, fastened to it as it were by ornamental stitches, which divide the 

 whole field into a number of areas, alternately larger and smaller, now concentric, 

 now radiating, between which the organs already described are inserted. 



The most active imagination is truly at a loss to discover, in such a creature, 

 any thing that recalls the animals with which we ourselves are most closely allied. 

 There is no head, no body, there are no limbs, and, if the most zealous advocate 

 of the serial arrangement of the animal kingdom were to urge the necessity of, 

 at least, designating as a mouth the opening which leads into the inner cavity of 

 the body, I should almost feel inclined to concede that there is such a series, if 

 he would undertake to point out where that opening is j^laced, without having 

 made a thorough study of this singular being. 



A glance at the beautiful plates (Pis. III., IV., V., and V^) of this animal, drawn 

 by Mr. Sonrel, which adorn the third volume of this work, will at once facilitate 

 the further illustration of our inquiry. Plate V. Fig. 1 represents the aspect of 

 the disk as seen from above. Though no attempt has been made to represent, in 

 connection with it, any parts of the lower surface which may extend beyond the 

 limits of the disk, yet, when seen floating near the surface of the water, the mar- 

 ginal thread.s, as well as the curtains hanging from the centre, are often observed 

 extending far beyond it, — the tentacles even to a distance of ten, twelve, or twenty 

 feet, and moi'e. PI. III. gives a profile view of the same, and as the disk is seen 

 edgewise, with the edge slightly bent downward, its thickness is, of course, brought 

 into sight, at the expense of its circumference ; while, on the contrary, all the organs 

 that hang from the lower surface are beautifully exposed to view, and their diversity 

 cannot fail to excite surprise, even though, from the manner in Avhich they are 

 represented, only one half of them is seen, and the marginal threads are, in a 

 great measure, represented as cut, in order not to enlarge still more the frame of 

 the plate. A specimen of the size of that here figured, when fully expanded, 

 would have some of its threads, at least, stretching to twice the length of the plate, 

 and in a specimen of about three feet in diameter, I have seen them extending 

 in every direction from twenty to thirty feet beyond the outline of the disk. 



The two bunches, which occupy about the middle of the figure, are the organs 

 generally designated as ovaries, — the three bunches of curtain-like folds, to the right 

 and left of them and between them, but hanging lower down than the ovaries, 



VOL. IV. 12 



