96 



DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



person stung in this way and even dangerous. There 

 are two other common large jelly-fish on the English 



coast, one called " Chrysaora " 

 (Fig. 8), with a wheel-like 

 pattern of brown pigment on 

 the disk, and the other with 

 the mouth lobes very large 

 and bound together like a 

 column. 



The common Aurelia is 

 remarkable for the fact that 

 the young which hatch from 

 its eggs attach themselves to 

 stones and rocks on the sea 

 bottom, and grow into little 

 white tube-like polyps, about 

 half an inch long, quite unlike 

 their parent, with a crown of 

 small tentacles surrounding 

 the mouth, whilst they are 

 fixed by the opposite end of 

 the body. Then a very 

 curious thing happens. The 

 little polyp becomes nipped 

 at intervals across its length, 

 so that it looks like a pile of 

 saucers — a dozen or more. 

 And then the top saucer 

 swims away as a minute 

 jelly-fish, the next follows, 

 and so on, so that, in the 

 course of an hour or two, 

 the whole pile separates into a number of freely 

 swimming young, each of which gradually grows into a 



Fig. 8.— a common British 



Jelly-fish. 



Chrysaora hysoscella, usually twice 



as big as the figure. 



