MEDUS/E, VELELL-E, AMD POIIPIT.E. SGS 



111. POUPIT/E. 



The body of the Pot-pita is circular, likewise 

 incloses a very thin transparent gristle, which is 

 here also circular, furnished with many (forty-two) 

 raised radii, and several concentric rings. The 

 exterior skin rises above the gristle, as a narrow 

 rim. There is no trace of a sail. On the under- 

 superficies, you observe in the middle, a large 

 stomach, surrounded by innumerable smaller ones, 

 exactly as in the velella ; there are, likewise, 

 small tentacula attached to the edge of the gristle. 

 A peculiarity of this s})ecies is, however, their 

 veiy long, club-shaped, triangular seizers, which 

 are likewise inserted in the edge of the gristle, 

 of different lengths and thicknesses, (according 

 to the age,) and provided, on their edges, with 

 round suckers. These are always placed at some 

 distance from each other, with respect to the 

 length of the seizer ; the suckers, however, of the 

 three different borders stand opposite each other j 

 the seizers are not regularly triangular, but one 

 of the superficies is much smaller than the two 

 others. 



The Porpita seems destined to fish only on the 

 surface of the sea, as it stretches out its seizers in 

 an horizontal direction, like radii. 



The species frequently observed by us in the 

 North Pacific Ocean, from the equator to the 40th 

 degree of north latitude, has a dark violet gristly 

 shell J the skinny edge was blue j the stomachs 



