68 PENIKESE. 



liquid state, are introduced into every vein and art- 

 ery, while every fibre responds; then the whole cools 

 with a hard, fast color. 



Still others are busy over beautiful sea mosses, and 

 the minute and delicate polyzoa and protozoa with 

 which they abound. Professor Bicknell has a class 

 in microscopy, and Mr. Alexander Agassiz will, as 

 soon as his health permits, give instruction about sea 

 animals, such as the medusae, starfishes, sea urchins, 

 jelly fishes, etc., and also in embryology. 



The aquariums are not all as yet in full running or- 

 der, though many of them are already well-filled 

 with sand, stones, sea-weeds, and a goodly number 

 of specimens that are especially adapted to live and 

 thrive in such confined quarters, and represent quite 

 fairly the animal life of the surrounding waters. 



One of our students has recently secured and placed 

 in his tank, one of those most beautiful, delicate, and 

 altogether wonderful little animals, so rare upon our 

 coast, the Physalia often called the Portugese Man- 

 of-War, or the Physalia arethusa of the scientist. It 

 is an exquisite little beauty a dainty, fragile gem 

 and belongs to the class of Acalephce. or Jelly Fishes, 

 of the order Hydroidea or Hydroids, which are also 

 known by the name of polyps, from two Greek words 

 signifying "many-footed" , referring to the tentacles; 

 which were, doubtless, in olden times supposed to be 

 feet, and, apparently, not without reason, since 

 tentacle is from a Latin word signifying "a. feeler, "- 

 and many of these lowest forms of animal life have 

 no feet but their feelers which must thus have orig- 

 inally been supposed to be feet, both from their shape 

 and from their appearance. One little animal, there- 

 fore, has quite a history of its own. Of late years, 

 scientists, who delight in changes and lengthy names, 

 have classed it as: Branch III (of the animal king- 

 don), Ccelenterata; Class I, Hydrozoa; Order III, 

 Siphonophora; Genus, Physalia; Species, Arethusa. 

 Now these long names are apparently meaningless to 

 the majority of mankind, but as we have no specimen 



