68 MARCH. 



the animal is at times much less expanded than at 

 others. We now see it in its most charming condition ; 

 the short fawn-coloured column inflated, the mouth 

 elevated on a strong cone in the centre of the wide 

 saucer-shaped disk, and the numerous tentacles arranged 

 in groups, as if several stems sprang from the same 

 root, long, slender, very flexible, twisting about like the 

 snaky locks of Medusa's head, all of the most delicate 

 light green, with a rich satin lustre, and all tipped 

 with the richest crimson-lilac or light rose, a most 

 beautiful harmony of colours. The animal adheres by 

 a broad base firmly to the disk of the tangle, and awaits, 

 as it waves hither and thither, the approach of one of 

 the little fishes that play heedlessly at bo-peep among 

 the fronds. No sooner does one of them touch the 

 far- stretching tentacles, than a virulent and penetrating 

 poison shoots through its frame ; its vigour is benumbed 

 in an instant ; it ceases to struggle ; its powerful fins 

 strike the water no more ; others of the fatal tentacles 

 enwrap themselves around it, and drag it towards the 

 mouth, already protruding and expanding in expecta- 

 tion of the morsel ; where it is in a few minutes en- 

 gulfed, and soon digested in that capacious maw. 



It is not very uncommon for a single specimen of 

 this species to become two by a perpendicular division. 

 The whole process has been observed. A little notch first 



