MOLLUSCA. 311 



me in doubt, whether the fishes preyed upon the Phy- 

 salis, and had become accidentally entangled in its 

 filaments, or whether the mollusc had the power of at- 

 tracting small fry by its brilliant colours, and of cap- 

 turing them as food. It is reasonable to suppose, that 

 the cables of Physalis are offensive as well as de- 

 fensive organs; and that, when spread on the water, 

 they serve to capture and disable prey by their viscid 

 and virulent secretion, and, by their retractile power, 

 to convey food to the fringe of short tentacles ; where 

 it is retained, as in a net, until it is consumed by the 

 animal. The short tentacles are tubular, which is not 

 the case with the cables ; and from appearances within 

 the tubes of the former appendages, I am inclined to 

 believe that the mollusc takes its food by absorption 

 through these root-like filaments, like medusa of the 

 genus Rhizostoma, and not altogether by an aperture in 

 the lower margin of the body, and which is said to be a 

 mouth. 



In some few specimens of this species, I have de- 

 tected several oblong transparent vesicles, of a green or 

 pink colour, lodged amongst the short tentacles. These 

 may probably be their young, in the form of offsets or 

 buds (gemma) a suspicion which would also attach to 

 similar appendages on the acute extremity of a species 

 of Physalis which I believe to be the tuberculosa of 

 Lamarck ; and of which we obtained many examples in 

 the Pacific. 



No facts have come under my own observation, nor 

 am I aware that any have been authentically recorded, 

 in favour of the opinion that the Physalis can rapidly 

 absorb and reproduce the air contained in its vesicle, 

 so as to sink or rise in the water at will ; as is con- 

 fidently asserted by the best modern authors. On the 



